Tipping the Scales
by Soul of Ashes
Summary: Nosgoth. When Kain had last lain eyes on it, it was in the hands of the Hylden... now he was back, but Amanda was missing. Could he continue without her, his one daughter, or will he sacrifice his duty as Scion of Balance to find her?
1. Balance

Author's Notes: So... the third and final epical story has come to a close. This has got to be the longest story I have ever written...I'm amazed it's taken me so long. I wonder if everyone's disappointed or happy with it so far? No reviews lately, so no point in addressing my readers... only to be thankful they put up with me at all. Welp... I'm taking another twist. As with all stories I write, I don't know what I'm doing until I get there. There'll be water under the bridge when I get there, that's all I know. In this story... Kain and Amanda must remake the vampiricempire, destroy the possed Janos Audren (sp? Gah, i'm tired), and force the Hylden back to the hellish hole fr'm whence the' came, har, har. How they do it... well. We'll all just have to see, won't we?

Balance

--Kain--

The cemetery bowled out like a growing infestation of ancient tombstones, each one having its own measure of decay and history etched into its rough surfaces. I moved around them, feeling the pull and ebbing of death like one unused to being at sea. The air was dense with fog, and my dust-covered face gave little protection against the rising of the sun. Protection, perhaps, was not all that lacking. As the sun rose with dream-like clarity against the roiling fog, my throat choked as maddening worry quickened my steps. My silver-white hair was frayed from my journey through the spatial vortex through which I had come crashing through the monastery roof and landing among the pews. My hands still remembered the desperate, stinging grasp of my daughter's hands as we flew together toward my home world, Nosgoth.

Her scream of terror hadn't yet died, insisting on reverberating in my ears.

So it was with horror as I watched the sun rise, thinking that if my fledgling vampire daughter Amanda had been tossed into Nosgoth in the manner as I had, would she have found sufficient shelter from the sun to protect her young, vulnerable body? Abandoning stubbornly the possibility that was even on the planet in the first place!

My hands clenched. The sword called the Reaver was sheathed against my back and hummed with the proverbial hunger that was awakening now, sensing the change of environment. The sword, possessed of a vicious, unending hunger for the souls of the living and dead, would not rest once awakened.

The sun couldn't touch me as I walked among the trees, passing a sign that read in bold human letters, "Do Not Enter". My fears haunted me while I walked the shadows, listening to the fall of pine cones and the calls of crows. The black birds were flying around possessed as if by madness, beady black eyes catching feverish sunlight. I watched them throw their bodies around back and forth from branch to branch before swinging around in a circle, pecking at each other in mid-air.

"Scavengers," I thought, sneering until my fangs showed. "I wonder what's got them into such a fit."

I investigated further. A road sign stood on the left-hand side with grass and weeds bunched up around its base. To the left was Termegent Forest. Directly straight was a village whose name I didn't recall, but it hardly mattered. I would go to the village first, and ask if anyone had seen a girl calling herself Amanda. This solution heartened me – how else could I find her but ask around?

The road was long and winding, and not a soul passed me on my way. I felt moisture trickle down my throat and wiped it clean, grimacing at the sensation. During my previous reign as a vampiric monarch, foggy days, rainy days and days of snow were a great inconvenience to my kind, particularly my children and their brood. Rahab, who ruled the Drowned Abbey, was immune to such weaknesses. In this, his family alone had an advantage over water.

The water didn't hurt me, but I grimaced because it made my armor and clothes stick causing considerable discomfort in certain, vulnerable places.

I topped the rise and saw a delinquent dash across the road, pursued by several bowmen on horseback. I crept into the trees and waited for the opportunity, eyeing that highly fashionable cloak the little cretin wore. As soon as the thief wheeled off to the left to take shelter in the trees near my leafy sanctuary, I stuck out my leg and caught sight of him take a long tumble down the hill.

I slid after him, hearing the men on horseback catch up and curse their sorry luck. Down in the shadowy wet green, I sized up my prey as he took stock of me, having already gotten to his feet to see who had interceded in the chase.

I drew the Reaver and gave my most terrifying smile. The man's eyes grow as big as sauce pans, a wordless shriek exploding from his dirty lips. I lunged, impaling him without mercy. The serpentine, twining Reaver blade cracked to life in that moment, aroused and hungry all at once, and fed upon the wretch's soul. There came another scream, echoing from the realm of spirits before it vanished, and the Reaver was sated.

I uncloaked the vagabond and slipped it around my own shoulders before mounting the corpse of the man up against the tree for his pursuers to find. I chuckled at what the hunters might think to find him there, posing as if taking a break from a long, refreshing jog.

My body momentarily mystified; it appeared again on the road, where I continued on my way with the Reaver sword sheathed against my back again.

--Amanda--

I staggered through a shallow brook, catching myself on an old pine tree, my fingers scraping loudly on the coarse bark. I was covered with pine needles and dirt; my pants were torn in so many places that they barely constituted much toward clothing at all. The night was ending fast and I was nowhere near anything like shelter. I didn't want to think of what might happen to me when the dawn came screaming over that horizon that was beginning to brighten a little too much for my comfort.

I paused to kneel in the water, and cup water into my hands and drink. Much as it refreshed me, I was still blood-starved and terrified. The trees whispered softly in the darkness of the night, the moon quaked in its reflection in the brook. The stark nakedness of nature alarmed me. I had never felt so completely alone in all my life, until this moment. A fresh bout of tears threatened to burst from me, but I bit them back with a guttural noise of determination. If I was going to get anywhere, I'd have to find something to eat, anything...

Walking became an immense chore, the cataclysmic thirst rumbling in me with a vengeance. I couldn't help but think of Kain not only as my father, but the source of the blood that made these hunger pangs vanish like a fresh wind blew away dust from a table. My faltering steps, my failing vision and my uneasy hold on existence, all of them were beginning to look like good reasons to lay down and die. But something was pulling me toward the hill ahead of me. In it, I spotted a low-sitting cave, dug out of the fresh earth as if laid out before me. I collapsed at the mouth and searched the inner shadows for a heartbeat. Nothing reached my ears.

The subtle beating of horses hoofs, however, did catch my attention. I lifted my head slowly, turning my back to the cave and scooting back. The riders crested a slight hump in a road I hadn't noticed. Their blurred shapes clarified as half a dozen heartbeats began to pound in my ears, drumming against my skin and my veins turned to fire. I scooted further into my cave, excitement coursing through me. I called out to one of the riders with my mind.

The man on the brown horse wheeled to a halt. He told his companions that he was going to look over there for a missing. I didn't care what boy he spoke of - the man's companions left him and he rode closer to my cave. I sneered, commanding with every ounce of will that was left to me. It was making me oh-so-exhausted...

"What's this?" he mumbled, his boot scuffing some dirt into the little cave. "A hole?"

I pounced on his boot. He screamed - too late, I realized, his companions would come. But I dragged his body in, my bloody thirst ruling my every thought and intention. The man was strong and powerful, and it was difficult maneuvering him into the cave with me since his armor was slightly bulky. But once I bent his arm in a particular way (after which the man screamed again in insufferable anguish.

"I don't know what manner of business you've got here, dude," I snarled, "but it's no longer your biggest concern." With that glowing bit of warning, I sank my teeth and felt his lifeblood gush into me, leaping into my mouth and down my throat like a wild herd of horses, stampeding into my body and making it whole. I saw flickers of images from the past enter into my thoughts - as alien and misconstrued as anything I had ever seen - and he fell limp and silent in seconds, utterly drained.

The horse outside was still standing, stomping nervously and nickering with distaste for the whole scenario. When I emerged, and his master did not, the horse gave me a long stare and started to back away. I took the reins without thinking. "Obey me," I commanded harshly, wiping my mouth with my other hand. Then I swung onto its back and started riding away, far away, surprising myself at how easily I adapted to riding in a saddle. I'd never ridden in my life before.

The tree branches were a real bother, however. They seemed to reach down and swat at me, trying to knock me off my chosen path. The blood was throbbing in my temples, nourishing me the longer I was riding. My pounding heart. Suddenly, crossing my path was not another tree branch, but a body, throwing itself in my path and startling my temporary mode of transportation into a rearing friendy. The thing bucked with its hind legs kicking and threw me forward, sending me tumbling into my impeding adversary.

We hit each other head on, tumbling a few feet over the road. My shoulder struck a stone and sent a lancet of paralyzing hurt through me so terrible I couldn't see for a few seconds. But my adversary was better off, and soon had us tangling together, wrestling.

"Stop it!" I cried, trying to pin his arms down. He was a little fast for a human, but in a few moments he had been pinned and I sat on his chest, staring down at his face. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

"Get away!" the man - or boy - crowed, turning his face away. "They're after me! Get off!"

"I don't think so!" I snarled back, suddenly careful not to show my fangs. I looked around, listening, but he was struggling and growling. So I said, "Shut up!" and raised my hand to smack him one, and he did as he was told.

The woods were lovely, dark and deep, to quote a famous earth poet named Robert Frost. But there were no men riding after us, and it seemed they hadn't heard their companion scream. I was terribly lucky. The horse was standing in the trees a few feet away, quivering from terror but otherwise well-trained. I looked back at the man again. His cheeks were two points of utter red from all of the fighting and running, it seemed. His hair was pitch black, cropped short but a few wild strands fell over his forehead, curly and thick. Then I looked up.

The sky had lightened and in a few seconds, I knew - the sun would rise. I gasped, and staggered away. "Take the horse if you want," I snapped to the young man. "But just get the hell away from here!"

I turned, dashing into the trees for another kind of shelter. On my swift slight through the trees, I thought I saw an abandoned stone structure topped by a black spike, beneath which had a small entranceway long abandoned that lead into untold crypts. I dove into it, not caring that the man even saw me run with such inhuman speed. At any rate, I barely percieved the sun's heat pierce my flesh just as I turned a corner in the darkness and slammed into something hard and knocked back. I slid to my knees and sat shivering, watching as a bar of sunlight stretch across the dusty floor of the crypt, pale and deadly, just inches from my arm.

I was safe, even if the sun fully rose. By the time it was noon, its angle shift, the sunlight retreating from the crypt entry which would allow me to move about in the little room and find further shelter within.

"Damn," I sighed, leaning my head back slowly. "That was so close, I don't ever want to do that again."


	2. Uschtenheim

Author's Notes:

Smoke: Yes, actually... I do tend to think faster than I am able to write... which is why I normally write using a computer - that's the fastest I can get my thoughts down... writing with pen and paper is reserved for journal entries and nonsense like poetry (which I suck at anyway). But yeah, I'll do corrections in awhile... Midterms and all that rot. Rawr.

Varyssa: Oh...I don't think you'll have to wait long for either of those two things to happen...

Lunatic Pandora: You mean for Amanda? That she should be the daughter of Kain would make her of purer form? Well, she doesn't have claws and she doesn't look scary - what more do you want!? LOL

Jumana: ! Pink Fuzzy 1! Whyfore your name change? I always liked to imagine you as a small pink fluff ball, like those dust mites from Spirited Away... What the heck am I supposed to envision a Jumana?

Uschtenheim

_--Kain--_

It was not as I had remembered. This place was brimming with humans, brandishing swords, spears, and knives supplied by the local militia in charge - the smell of fear was everywhere. My mind struggled to recapture the events which followed my battle with the monstrosity my ancestors called God. Whispers of demons and monstrosities roaming the land were common, and as I carefully navigated through the throngs of people flooding the streets to get supplies to leave, I felt myself feel a minute measure of pity for them. Children (wearing dirty, torn tunics covered in mud and melting snow) cried incessantly; parents struggled to keep their children from finding trouble.

The stone buildings were laden with ice and snow from a recent snowfall. Horses hurried past, huffing huge clouds of steam from their quivering noses as they followed their agitated masters. The rooftops were glittering as the sunlight broke through the clouds occasionally, stabbing through them with single lances of light, water dripping softly to the cobbled ground below. Crosses mounted most doorways, crude wooden structures spanned across the streets between the houses.

As I stood apart, watching this terrible disorganized fray try and make sense of what was to be done next, a horse rode into the village and trotted toward the tavern. I turned my head, carefully shielding my face. Its rider dismounted stiffly and then limped as fast as he could into the dark hollow chambers within the building.

Compelled to find out where he had come from, I followed. In the dim light, I felt safer. It was simple to find a place to hide - I preferred not to use the term cower - exerting my will so that none would take notice of my unique and dark presence.

I watched as the horse rider found a place a table closest to the fire and hunched his shoulders, black hair tumbling carelessly across his darkened eyes. He obviously hadn't rested in over a day. The turmoil outside was muffled by the stone walls of the building, and he motioned for one of the waiters to find him something to drink.

I suppose if he had just come from the outside, I could ask him about Amanda. I approached quietly, hoping not to alarm him. I came into his line of sight, and he jerked his head back as if only to get a better look at me.

I tugged my hood closer. I took on a friendly, conversational tone. "Might I join you for a moment, friend?"

The stranger wiped his hair out of his face with a slightly confused expression, as if pondering why I alone should be talking to him. "Go on..."

I sat quietly, taking a glance around, before leaning forward, resting my arm in a human fashion on the table. "In this confusion... I have lost track of my daughter. We were traveling together; recently we've been separated and I was wondering if you have seen here whereabouts."

"What...does she look like, exactly?" the man replied slowly. Outside there was a shout, but I was heartened by his look of eagerness. His excitement caught, and I was distracted, wanting to hear more, so I answered him with all the description I could muster. The words that described her made my chest ache with a worry that went deeper than the bone.

The man looked at me carefully, as if trying to discern my face in the shadows. Then slowly he began to nod, and he took the mug of drink from the waiter as the waiter passed. He took a long draught, and leaned back in his chair suddenly as though extremely exhausted. "I've seen her," he said finally. "She was in the forest and she nigh bowled me over with her horse. I don't think it was hers, and she ran off as the sun was rising and she left it behind. That's the horse you see outside."

My breath exploded out of me, relief seeping through my sore body. The stranger could tell me no more after watching her bolt into the trees with unnatural speed. But I had one final question, to be sure. "Did you see any markings on her? Such as on her palm?"

"I thought I did see something... she was going to hit me," he said indignantly, sticking his lip out before taking another long drink.

"Ah, yes. What's your name, hu-- man?" I leaned back also, finding myself growing slightly anxious. She must be in the woods somewhere, taking shelter. The only forest around here was Termogent, and so I would look there first and foremost.

"Torrent," he replied. "And who are you? You must be a very brave man, to look for her in the forest. I hear that there are demons taking root there, killing off travelers left and right."

I lurched to my feet, knocking the chair over. I shook my head back and forth, gripping the sword on my back. A new urgency gripped me. "I cannot linger," I said quickly, turning only to hear the crash come again. The cry of a horse burned into my ears and my attention was driven out the door.

"Someone stop that man!!" a harsh voice cried. Several armored guards dashed across the door and into the street, and I followed carefully behind. A group of humans were all shying away from a single figure in the street, which convulsed in the snow and cried out, foam bubbling at the mouth and the eyes turning an unholy shade of ether green. Then all at once the convulsions stopped and the man struggled to his feet, trembling and quaking.

I heard my voice calling out against my will. "Stand away!!! He's possessed!!"

A woman nearby wearing a stained blue dress cried out and jerked away from the others, closing her hands over her mouth as the man took two wobbly steps toward the audience. A string of drool hung down from the left corner of his lips, his two front teeth completely missing. I grimaced, and the knights advanced to apprehend the demon-possessed. But man took one look at them and then, as one came too close, he sent a kinetic blast of energy, sending him and his comrades spiralling into the snow.

Panic was going to sweep across this crowd, and as a vampire I could feel it swelling and trying to drive into my skull the instinct to run away as well. But I was too old and too wise - instead, I drew the Reaver and advanced. The crowd parted for me, finally noticing me as I dropped my bewitchment.

The man rolled his head awkwardly in my direction. A voice curdled out of those spit-covered lips, as unpleasant to listen to as it was unpleasant to watch. "Leave off, vampire. You are not strong enough to topple the Hylden Lord - go back to where you cowered to before."

"You don't think it prudent that I make an example of you then, demon?" I replied coolly, my hood still down but capable of fighting with it. The humans backed themselves away into an almost neat square. The demon-possessed man's features were beginning to contort into a hideous rendition of a demon's face when he turned and ran comically with his arms flailing toward the frame of villagers.

I charged after him to intercept, the Reaver shrieking with hideous glee as the sword cut the air and caught the tail edge of the man's leg and sprayed red and green demon blood on into the snow. The demon crowed, veered to the right and turned around to face me. The creature had spawned two black wings, tearing the shirt and totally exposing the bones of his ribs and shoulder blades as the flesh tore. A blood-boiling scream broke the snowy silence and the on-lookers faces went utterly translucent.

"Get back, demon!" I growled, sliding my foot behind me slightly, the Reaver humming with an eerie blue glow. "Leave this man in peace!"

"Too late," the demon chuckled. "His body is ruined; his soul thrown to the winds of death." He charged again at the mortals, this time with more speed. I chased after him, caught hold of a boney rat-like protrusion which I had taken for a tail. His whipping, deadly claws had stopped just inches in front of a small boy's face. One pull, and the demon was back toward the center of the hellish arena.

I threw him down and slashed again, and again without mercy, rending the body into useless pieces. Then those pieces vanished for good, leaving just random puddles and stains of demon blood on the ground. The humans were still silent, and I adjusted my hood carefully, trying not to jostle it back too far. My hopes to remain anonymous were shattered with this - why did I involve myself in this battle? Perhaps Amanda's sense of justice had rubbed off on me.

Then, unexpectedly a cheer rose and swelled, hands began applauding with vicious fervor and hats flew. I was shocked beyond belief. They started pooling toward me, reaching out to congratulate and thank me, worship me for all my strength and talent. But I waved my hands to ward them off, before turning and fleeing. They were still cheering as I neared the gates, the guards watching me in a strange, mystified manner.

I had hoped I made a lasting impression on them. If I became once more the vampire monarch, then they would become highly useful in the future...

--Amanda--

The sun was down when I woke up again. The lonely desperation overcame me again, so I cried into my dusty hands and wiped them on my thighs. Then, ever so slowly I walked out of the dark, stagnant depths of the crypt and stood in the aromatic pine trees. The hairs on my arms stood on end from the white cold that seeped into my skin. I was thirsty again but I was strong enough to find an animal. I hated the taste of animals, their simple thoughts that came into my mind when I fed, but if I wanted to live I would sustain myself on squirrels and rabbits.

I penetrated the shadows, trying to find my way back to that hidden road I was on before I nearly ran over the strange dark-haired guy. A nocturnal creature crossed my path once and in my mercy, I killed it fast and drained it totally and buried it in the leaves. I looked up at the moon once or twice to find a bearing and kept heading in that direction, once in awhile reaching out my feeble mind powers to search for Kain. I encountered nothing, either because I was too young or because he was too far away or both.

About midnight I stopped to light a small witch fire to carry with me, mostly to keep me warm. In the trees I began to invent shapes that watched me with cold, unforgiving eyes. Cerulean snow covered the ground as I traveled on, and the monsters that I envisioned almost began to seem real and radiated a deep malevolence that frightened me; I was dancing close to the edge of madness.

I wished Raziel was here. I placed a hand over my chest, while in the other I manipulated my little globe of light ahead of me like a laser flashlight, beaming light in all directions to reveal its deeper secrets. Some of the monsters vanished before being revealed. My heart pounded and my chest felt warm, as if to reassure me that I was safe. "God, I hope so."

A few more miles of hiking and my shoulders were aching for some reason. I extinguished my light and scaled a small wall and hopped down on the other side. There, the ground began to tremble and a wall of magic sprang up down the small quarry, made primarily of stone. Two monsters appeared, both of them black and terrible, horns protruding from their hands like claws. I backed up slowly, immediately terrified stiff. Not one spell I could have conjured came to my mind within the terrible seconds that followed.

I crashed against the ground with my hands out-stretched, feeling a fire crawling down my skin and against my shoulders. Screaming until I blacked out, I finally awoke with the land fairly scuffled up around me as if some struggle had occurred. I stood up, feeling cold and hot at once... my shoulders especially ached. Not a whisper of wind disturbed the silent, watchful and unmovable trees.

Staggering to the nearest tree, I leaned on it and closed my eyes to gain my breath. My aching body would recover. Then I took my hand off of the coarse bark and looked at my palm. Kain's sigil was glowing, and I couldn't even begin to guess what in the blazes that could have meant.


	3. Termogent Forest

Lunatic Pandora1: They're only cheering for Kain because he saved them from demon guy. I'm sure if he ever returned to Uschtenheim in the future they will not treat him so kindly...

Varyssa: Once more... thank you! And I have. Here's chapter 3, so uh... I guess... enjoy??

Smoke: I'll have to look it up. I'm not sure yet. It's definitely after the Raziel's sacrifice. If I put it before... I'll just get everyone else and myself confused. Right now, the Sarafan and Moebius's men are in a state of total confusion. All they know is that the Hylden have recently poured into the world and things need to be fixed. I hope this chapter lends another hint...

Jumana: Well. If he's got a big old cloak, he doesn't need it. And I don't think he's so skilled as to keep his identity hidden if he's smacking around a demon while everyone else is watching. And I think Jumana sounds pretty... like, all African and stuff. Is it? I like it. "Pearl"... Hey! Can I use you for a character?

Chapter 3

Termogent Forest

--Kain

A bird stood in the chill evening air, the sun's last warm touches fading and leaving the world eerie and gray. Silver points of light puckered out to the east where the sky was darkening ever so slowly, like an ink stain trickling across cloth.

Amongst the shadows I felt other animals' heartbeats after my presence startled the bird into frantic flight. I could have caught squirrels and divulged their secret blood with one swift bite, but I was too full of pride to coerce the animals to me and drink. Brigands and scrawny thieves would cross my path, no doubt about it, as well as the few loyal Sarafan hunters who remained true to their task despite Moebius's death.

"I believe your time has… run out," I mimicked in the old codger's voice. Had Amanda known that man, she would have spent every available opportunity to make complete mockery of him.

I walked briskly, jumping up to an old cliff marred by time and claws of others who had gone before me. There was a ladder past that, which I also ignored and chose to jump instead, clambering for a foothold before throwing my weight onto the flat rock above. Over this short cliff it dropped and fell swiftly to a quiet pond, which was long and deep near its center. It was almost, I dared to wager, a lake in and of itself. I did not recall having seen it there before.

I stood up, shivering that I should perish in these waters. I had taken liberties to bathe before I left for Nosgoth, but what if it was only because Earth's water was different from my own? That only Nosgoth water had the hidden properties needed to kill a vampire?

I couldn't stand here and deliberate such unknowable possibilities. I could faintly discern a vampire presence lingering near the edges of my awareness, directly ahead of me and this body of water was the only thing keeping me from it. So, I stepped to the edge, and peered down. It looked deep enough to jump into. It wasn't as if I hadn't jumped a long distance before, nor certainly fallen.

I would laugh myself to death if I fell headlong. If only Amanda could see me shivering at the water's edge like a puppy, I thought cheerfully, before stepping off and letting the gravity take me down.

The water gulped my body into the darkness. The sounds of the forest were silenced, only to be replaced by the disconcerting echoes of the deep blackness below me. I had not swum in many, many years. I immediately cursed myself for my foolishness. It wasn't so improbable that Nosgoth's savior couldn't swim, was it?

I kicked my legs and burst my head through the surface, gasping for air that I really didn't need. My hair floated around me like bright, shiny ice. I brushed my hair back and looked around, then up. The cliff were I stood was still there, and I was only a little way from the base, where the fossils of ancient mussels were embedded in the stone. The deepest part of the lake was fifty or so feet away, and all I had to do was cross it.

Pity that I didn't notice the humanoid skull sticking out at such an angle that its bright white head seemed only like a rock. I turned, and manipulated myself into learning (or relearning) how to swim. A few motions of my arms and legs and I ducked my head under water and dove, kicking hard. I was ecstatic, only aware that I couldn't stop smiling. In the darkness of the water, I never noticed anything moving, so I felt perfectly safe just to enjoy myself for awhile.

I came up later, since I didn't need to breath, with a piece of green sea plant stuck to my forehead. I plucked it free and gave it a toss, watching it spiral and flash bright neon before it landed in the water in the dying rays of the sun. The sky was almost entirely navy blue, peppered with white stars and the rising bone moon. I paddled over to the opposite shore and staggered onto the sand.

"I suppose my muscles aren't used to that sort of activity anymore, eh?" said I, grinning and wringing out my mercury white hair. I didn't know who I was talking to, only that I should speak because otherwise I may find myself as equally mad as Raziel, whose poor spirit resided in the sword.

I checked to make sure I hadn't lost anything, then I resumed my journey leaving drippy, wet footprints in the dirt. The vampire presence was not much closer and maybe even farther away. I lunged on ahead and was stopped by an unsettling vision – one such wagon, spilled over with every content cast higgledy-piggledy in all directions, and blood staining most of the ground around it. There was no sign of the attackers or any survivors, only this horrible silent mystery.

Amanda was not capable of such a thing on her own. Barring Amanda and I, there were no more real vampires in Nosgoth. The ghosts of this travesty would forever remain lost without vengeance, unless…

I slowly overturned the contents of a small box with my black boot. It fell open and a tinny, tingling song came from it. It cast a bitter glow from a tiny light inside, probably cheap magic. I bent to pick it up, and saw a small representation of Nosgoth turning around on a small plate, inside a beautifully carved wooden edifice. Wolves and lions bordered the edge; the lions with flowing manes, wolves with bright curved teeth and eyes. I picked it up and dusted it off, closing the lid, then opening it again. The glow came from underneath the turning glass piece, stained glass and tiny stones that represented places.

I listened to the song, its traitorous lulling keeping my attention from being focused on the surrounding region. Otherwise I was helplessly in love with the small box and its strange, detailed beauty. What would such a treasure be doing in a place like—

A bottle went skittering from behind the wagon. I snapped the lid of the box shut and closed my trembling fingers on the warm, eager sword that still thirsted – that would always thirst – for the souls of its victims. I watched the night-darkened shadows keenly, knowing only that the demons were around me and there was nothing I could do but fight them.

"Hylden filth, reveal your dark, ruined bodies so I might cut them down and quench my hunger!" I roared, putting the box in my small pouch. To emphasize the gravity of the situation, a swelling rush of voices echoed back, dark promises of the flesh, promises of death, curses of eternity of thirst with no respite, not a drop of blood to ease my pain.

I smiled, for their threats meant nothing. Then my lips fell and were instead drawn into a tight scowl. My temples were beating with the thirst and no demon blood would sate me. It was filthy and would make me very ill.

"Come and hurry to your execution, then," I snarled back, brandishing the Soul Reaver with yet another vibrant sweep of the weapon.

Rivers of lesser Hylden demons poured from the trees, their eyes pulsating green in the darkness. Each twisted arm was bent to the grotesque semblance of a wing, their skin black and grey and pale, death-white that was mottled with black veins. Some demons were huge monstrosities, elemental in nature and not so easy to dispatch.

"So be it!" I threw myself at the heart of them, the Reaver screaming for joy. There was a sickening resemblance to any of Raziel's deathly roars of rage, mixed with the holy voices of the Balance Emblem guardians. The discordant chorus cried again and again, while I dealt an end to the demons' immortality.

My body swerved and arched, catching their claws in my flesh which only worsened my hungry state. While I slaughtered them without mercy, I suffered for my reckless rage. When they were all mostly slain, their bodies simmering and then vanishing into thin smoke that drifted to the skies, I collapsed to the ground and lapped up the spilled blood from the earth with disgusted satisfaction. It would hold me – for awhile.

The vampire presence was frustratingly dim. I ran to catch up to it, but I could no more pin-point it than I could pinpoint the location of earth in the stars. I grimaced, feeling my own patience draining. I stood still, and invoked my Whisper ability to shout as loud as I could, _ AMANDA!! For pity's sake, can you hear me? Is there any hope that you can answer back to me?_

I detected a tremor, like reverberations along a spider's web of silk. There was nothing else but that, and it was barely enough to reassure me.

--Amanda

It took a great deal of practical maneuvering to get myself through the village. I hadn't the skill to really make myself too invisible except for my witchcraft, which required too much of my own blood to power it. I let myself simply hide amongst the shadows and pant miserably in the darkness, watching my cold breath pant no fog in front of me. I was totally alone as usual, but that familiar horse in the stable calmed me. It was exactly the horse I had ridden through the woods before scaring the pants off of that young man. On the chance that he would have taken my advice and ridden to safety, now I watched with great anticipation for some sign of him to emerge – or for trouble to stir on account of 'his' presence.

Nothing so far. The horse behind me supplied me with a few lovely mouthfuls of musky animal blood, and didn't seem to care about having been bitten since I made it as swift and painless as possible. It regarded me when I looked at it with a certain sort of quiet animal understanding, then he turned around and ignored me. Good boy.

Vampires didn't really bother the animals unless they were making a show of it. Kain once told me that older vampires are the ones that stir animals into fear unless they practice the dark skills necessary to make themselves really unnoticeable. But a fledge like me, who could barely cause any trouble, was likely to be viewed as uninteresting as a rock to any mammal – neither living, nor quite dead, thus undeserving of proper curiousity maintained by creatures of considerable intelligence.

So I hid in the stable, staring through a busted out board, just watching and listening for awhile. I was too afraid to talk to anyone – the last people who I had seen was that boy and the strange men on horseback who seemed to be after the guy.

Finally, one of the doors opened and cast a buttery glow on the frozen snow. Twin clouds of steam burst from the nostrils of the cloaked man, before he shut the door and treaded across the treacherous, icy cobbles.

He stopped once and checked his belongings – lord knows a tavern wench could steal your clothes off one's back, I guess – then he resumed his way to what appeared to be another building. A man answered the broad door, dressed in a grey old robe. They stood black against the bright candle light inside the room beyond, strange ghosts in an even stranger town. The robed man took on a bossy tone that the other individual didn't like.

"Listen here," the cloaked man growled. "I told you I couldn't find him anywhere but the horse is right in the stable! He could have taken off with a different horse for all we know!"

"I want him found!" the robed man nearly screamed. "We lost him during that demon slayer's battle in Uschtenheim before, and if we lose him again-- If he isn't brought to them, the Sarafan priests will be stampeding here to find the truth! They'll have our heads as penance! Now get on your horse and start looking!"

The cloaked man straightened, then stood a step forward. Robed man, although angry, was not brave and he retreated into his home a few paces. "Don't try my patience," growled the dark cloaked warrior. "Don't presume that you can order me about. You forget who it was that gave you the stone, and I can get it back – one way… or another."

"I understand, but please… find the boy. Without him, it just won't work."

The fellow nodded his head, then he swung his head in my direction, before walking toward me. I scuttled back until my rump hit the horse's leg. It made a disconcerted snort and shuffled off to the side, swinging his head around with his ears back in a most disturbing look of warning. 'Watch where you're sticking your butt, human!'

I was almost positive they were talking about that boy now. Something about a 'stone'? What exactly were they talking about? His eyes came back to me in a brief flashback when I told him to run. He looked so grateful and relieved.

Suddenly the stable doors burst open and the man stepped into the darkness, his breath puffing in the light from behind him. Then he vanished into a stall and emerged guiding his own horse from the shadows, the clomping hooves echoing in the small space. He mounted swiftly, and trotted out of the village and rode out as hard and as fast as he could.


	4. Demented Aerie

Author's Notes: This is a transition... really, the very first time I'll write a character besides Amanda and Kain for the time being. It may or may not happen again, but don't get excited if you begin to hate Torrent as much as I do. Man, this is hard. (I need something to chew on - why am I starting to feel like my fanfics are starting to suck? Is it because they do?)

Torrent

I had been tracking the creature for days and days. I saw him defeat the demon and with nothing more than complete awe. Obviously, when his hood fell back and his mercury hair became visible I knew he was not human. There was a gasp from the crowd... and mine were among the eyes that watched him leave as fast as his legs might possibly carry him. Then, when I could escape unnoticed, I left the tavern and chased after him. Days went by, as I lost sleep but continued to follow as fast as I could.

But without food, and without hunting, I grew weary. I slept an entire day away with fever, and not a moment went by when I didn't imagine myself sitting amidst some great feast and gorging myself to my heart's content. My stomach felt like a great vacuum was sucking at it, harder and harder until it was a twisted knot of empty, dry flesh.

I collapsed in a cold patch of grass near an open lake. The world pitched and heaved with each throb of my skull. Someone must have been pounding on it, I knew. Or something. I closed my eyes, and felt my energy trickle out into the grass like fresh blood. Night drew its silken sheets over the world and left me blind.. or maybe I had merely fallen into unconsciousness. I remember hoping I wasn't going to die - that I was simply resting.

Then a voice - a strange one. As if two people were speaking the same words sliced through my bliss and gave me cause to search the uncertain blackness before my unmoving eyes. Someone lifted me with surprising ease and propped me against a tree. When I could discern what was said, I felt relief.

"Ah," the voices whispered together in tandem. "Another foolish human. No weapon... ah!" The figure lurched back as if burnt when it reached for my neck, and touched the jewel that hung there. The fingers had barely brushed it and seemed to cause him pain.

"That... that stone..." the voices whispered, then snarled. "Damn it all that I would never lay eyes upon that thing again! I cannot so much as stand its touch!"

The man gave a low growl, but steadily drew closer again to me. When I saw his eyes, they were a savage yellow-gold that filled me with fear and fascination. Then the blackness stole over me and my ears drummed with the sound of laborious wing beats. I felt the touch of feathers against my face, and then felt nothing more.

The stone hurt to be so close to it. But death was hanging heavily like a shroud of dust that could not be lifted easily. At the Aerie, where my foolhardy host had lived out the last of his days when the Sarafan ripped his heart from his body, I took him to one of the best rooms possible. I had to be careful with him if I was to make him an ally, human or not. He had a weapon... and I wasn't sure if he knew it 'was' a weapon, but until I did, 'twas better to be his friend than his enemy.

He slept a long time. Nourishing him was no problem. My thoughts were scattered. Within my mind Janos stirred like an infesting parasite, roaring monstrously for control again. His bloodlust kept him at bay, but it also made me vulnerable in this body. I drank blood from a chalice in my claws and oversaw the servants as they nursed the human boy laboriously back to health.

While I sipped, I considered how this one would be useful to me, each mouthful of blood nourishing my host and yet filling me with a fear of Janos Audron. The vampire would soon take hold and I would have to let him while I mulled over my live capture. A fountain of water behind stained glass trickled across its surface, chill and soothing. Janos had a good eye for architecture which was why many of the statues hereabout had been left untouched. But a great many of the vampire idols were smashed and replaced with my own - the Aerie had become a sanctity for devils now, and nothing winged could make it up to my hidden place. A vampire's tomb had thus become my sanctuary.

Torrent

When I woke, the final nail in my coffin had been hammered in - for there were ghastly apparitions before me. My worst fear had come true and I was among the demons that scoured Nosgoth. But they neither looked directly at me nor ignored me completely, for one of them brought a plate of the most delicious food I had smelled and touched and craved in awhile. Round masses of muffins stood high on a silver platter, and on a second platter stood chicken legs and a huge tureen of gravy and a bowl of mashed potatoes. I was grabbing the spoon and forking the food into my mouth before the plates touched the table bed. Demons or no, I was starved and half-mad and nothing would keep me from this feast.

Presently I was aware of a tall, imposing figure make himself known to the rest of the room. The servants fled before it and disappeared through the doors behind him like chastened dogs, leaving me alone with the being. It was not until I had eaten myself exhausted that my eyes found his.

Through the haze of a happy stomach and renewed weariness I found his eyes were clear as day. They were not blazing green or any such thing. In fact, he looked kindly and ancient, his stately black wings folded loosely behind his broad shoulders. He was tall - much taller than me by a head. He gave me a small smile and moved toward me carefully. Another servant came to move the feast from my reach, unnoticed by the tall angelic being. His hands had three fingers, each ending with a deadly claw. His skin was the blue of death without dying; his eyes fiery yellow.

"Are you well now, young one?" he asked in one voice. Two undeniable points revealed his fangs... but why was he consorting with the demons? I supposed like called to like... in any realm.

I nodded my head to answer.

"Do you know where you are?" I shook my head. "That is to be expected. You have been long in the forest without food. Whatever were you doing?"

_Should I tell him about Kain and his daughter?_ I wondered, fear creeping into me. _What if I lie and he found out?_

"I was following somebody. Important, you see. But I'm not at liberty to tell, so please don't ask, sir..." Once more I found myself staring. This creature was both terrible and beautiful. I knew not whether to be afraid or positively entranced. I was nevertheless entranced anyway, for when he came close he touched my forehead and nodded.

The thick accent was easier to understand this time. "You are not so warm anymore. The magic seems to have worked well. Now...I must ask you to do something..." And here the voice changed. A struggle ensued and the winged being lurched upright again, his spine straight as a tree and then curled again as he scraped his claws over his head. "N-No! I am not done speaking" "_You will not speak again! Ahh... much better."_

I sank into the pillows. The body was horrible again. Fire-tipped wings, his body slightly burned as though he were made of cooling magma. Green bled from his eyes. A terrible glowing green that reminded him sorely of the Reaver in Kain's grasp.

The voice had two tones. Both of them were not pleasant, but the one that underlie it was the voice of the kind man who had looked after him. "I know of who you follow, boy. There is no lying. I'd like you very much to keep following him - don't worry, you will have protection... and you'll lead them both to me. Understand?"

"Both to... you." I couldn't tear my eyes away. I couldn't escape. Finally I pushed the blankets away and moved off the bed, putting the furniture between myself and the demon. "But... what about the girl?"

"Let me worry about the girl. You don't know it yet, but they are the enemy, Torrent." I gasped, but it was too late - he had already taken the name from my mind. Damned demon! "They want to destroy Nosgoth, you see. The girl is a dangerous weapon and she must be destroyed before she can fulfill her role. You will lead them to me in ignorance. You know where the Aerie is but Kain does not. See to it they get here in due time. I will fly you back to near where he is... and you'll follow. Do as your told, and I'll let you live."

I shook my head, but my mouth didn't move. And I wanted to say no! Would he really kill me? By the blood on his lips that I finally noticed, I knew the answer had to be yes. Maybe. I couldn't risk it - I was tired still, but he would want me to go immediately. When the sun set, he teleported me to the forest and I was once again alone.

Amanda

My back ached more than ever. I tried using some of my witch stuff to make it better, but it only dulled the ache by a small margin. I rested in the darkness of a tomb that I managed to squirm into. I was only a few days away from the Pillars I saw in the sky at night. They seemed to glow a little against the starlit sky. When it rained, I kept walking, keeping my eyes on the pillars that seemed to penetrate the clouds. How tall 'were' they? Did they disappear when they reached beyond the atmosphere?

"I hope Kain finds me...but then I'm hiding in some dead guy's coffin," I thought, hoping I'd be found before long. I hungered for Kain's touch and his eyes and his blood, mostly. I was still his girl no matter what way I thought about it. I didn't have time to worry about the nature of my love for him... only that I needed him soon. By the gods, my goddamn back was killing me. I whimpered into the palm of my dirty hand, eyes closed, biting my lip until I saw stars... and Raziel, hovering wraith, bleeding eyes and screaming in the reflection of a curving, black sword.


	5. Aerie Lake

Smoke: Thank you for the advice. I knew I had to get the story moving anyway... but I had to get Janos/Hylden Lord out of the way. And Torrent had to be someone other than some guy that helped them out. I noticed a lot of the character I insert end up getting forgotten or lost... It probably would have made more sense to spring Janos on Kain and Amanda first... Winces now that I think about it, I'd rather have it be that way now... but I'll have to make it work like it is.

Oh well... can't go back now.. sighs Well..I could..but I don't feel like it. Besides, rewriting makes me feel dirty.

_**--Amanda--**_

When I awoke some time later, the last rays of the sun were touching the Pillars where I could see them from underneath a large cloak. I closed my eyes again, and an ache unlike anything I'd ever felt made me twist my hands through my brown-red hair. It dominated my upper back and spread down my ribs, cracking them, and tears spilled from my eyes. When it was over I called plaintively for Kain - had he left me here?

Torrent knelt in front of me, peering carefully under the cloak. "Are you well?" he asked tentatively, uncertain as to what was my problem.

I whimpered and shook my head, which made the cloak stir and rustle. It smelled like Torrent and faint traces of blood reached me. As the sun set and darkness settled, I reached out toward toward him, my long white arm and fingers grabbing wrist. "Don't sit so close to me," I growled gutturally before grudgingly relinquishing my hold.

Torrent scuttled away as fast as he could. I could tell he was scared of me, and this both hurt and made me glad. I didn't want any new friends.

"Where's Kain?" I demanded as I sat up gingerly, brushing the cloak from my shoulders.

"He went off to see what's ahead. We're going somewhere very dangerous, I'd like to let you know," Torrent answered. While he spoke, I bunched up the cloak and tossed it at him. He plucked it up from the ground and shook it out before sliding it back on over his shoulders.

Kain materialized from the trees with the Reaver in hand. My body lurched again, propelled to my sire like a moth to a flame. He peered at me when I came close, then held one arm around my back when I leaned against his hard chest. "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't know," I wheezed. "My back hurts really bad, Kain. And I'm thirsty. Could you...?"

"Ah," Kain smirked. Then his glare turned on Torrent. "Leave us, unless..."

"I understand! I'm going, I'm going," Torrent muttered before leaving through the trees.

Kain stroked my hair. I could feel his touch through each strand like fire. I didn't close my eyes, because I knew who would be looking at me there behind my sight - Raziel, searching me for the truth.

"Amanda," Kain murmured, and looking upon his wrist I saw his blood ready for me. I sank my teeth into it, heard his groan of satisfaction, and drank deep from the unholy river of his blood. Each mouthful made me feel whole again. I would still be his fledgling for years to come, I realized, until I would no longer be dependent on his blood to restore my health.

When it was finished, I stood on my own and though the pain in my back still remained, I was ready for travel. Kain rubbed his arm from where I had drank, and I blushed. "We are going to the Aerie. The Hylden Lord has taken up residence there... and seeing as how you're on the mend, we ought to be off there."

I nodded slowly. The Reaver was watching me - each time I saw it in his hands I always felt its gaze from the baleful eyes of the skull near the hilt. Kain strode off into the trees where Torrent was waiting.

_**--Kain--**_

The journey was shorter than I expected. Torrent didn't appear to know the way as well as he had boasted, but maybe he was taking us in circles on purpose. The human seemed troubled enough; I didn't trust him nearly enough as Amanda did. She even spoke to him once in awhile but preferred to stick by herself. She often twisted her arms back to rub her shoulders with grimaces of discomfort - when I questioned, she said she didn't know.

The air was colder the farther we went until we stood upon the edges of a lake. Here was the Aerie - it was a mock representation of the vampire who once lived here. Skeletal trees stood on either side of the lake, covered with frost and filth. The lake was deep, dark with blood and refuse. Many of the stones that proved to be jumping points had sunk to the bottom in pieces. Torrent stood underneath a stand of trees just a few yards, wrapped in his cheerless cloak with a funereal air about him.

Upon this abject scene my daughter stood, long in thought with her eyes pinned on the Aerie across the rancid body of water. There wasn't a demon in sight... and yet I felt the chilling premonitory wind as a great figure flew past and land on the shore away from the water. Had I known Janos was possessed, it may have prepared me for the great disadvantage I had concerning his flight and I was bound to the earth.

"Kain," the Hylden Lord said. "You've returned at last... and you've brought a friend. How kind of you. How... reckless."

"I should hope you believe that you will defeat me today?" I replied. Already Amanda was moving back to stand some distance to my left, and her hands were glowing with a witch's fire. I wasn't positive that she could still use her magic, but there it was - ready to fire at the start of the battle. "But how can you fight two of us?"

"Why... Kain. You forget that you are standing on the threshold of the new Hylden base. I have many minions ready in the shadows to rip your throat out."

"Torrent," Amanda said suddenly, looking as the dark-haired boy stumbled over to the water. He looked like a rabbit with his leg cut off and couldn't seem to walk straight at all - and then I saw for myself the dart that had punctured his leggings and his skin, and there he fell into the water, unconscious but safely above it, breathing easy. "He betrayed us, Kain!"

"I know," I mumbled flatly. My eyes captured the demon's. "Hylden... you know I will kill you one way or another."

"Very well... I will see to it that you'll get your sport." The being lashed forward so quickly that he was more or less a black blur that covered the distance between them in less than a second. Both wings battered forward, stars exploding behind my eyes when I struck my back against a tree. The incessant screaming of watching demons filled the air, and the fireball Amanda had prepared struck its mark when the Hylden lord stopped to gloat over his blow.

We took our turns, she and I, exchanging blow for blow what the winged monstrosity dished out. Amanda was slow and young, but her magic was effective enough so that when lightning exploded from the skies, making my ears ring, and the possessed Janos struck the earth with each black feather stained with blood, Amanda came out with a few bruises and I, covered with open gashes. I quickly stole over to the prone body of Janos, seeing that he was himself.

"Kill me," he rasped, clawing at his throat. "Quickly... Before he takes me again!"

The Reaver was practically roaring for death. The blade was glowing, the savage nature of my once firstborn son trembling to the very hilt of the blade. Amanda crouched with her hands glowing with an eerie resemblance to the same fire that burned in the blade. I couldn't kill Janos - suddenly I was utterly lost, as if every coherent thought abandoned me. There lie Janos, bleeding and dying with my most hated enemy harbored in his body. Kill me, he says. But Janos was... was...

_What should I do?_

_"Kill him!" _Amanda howled, her eyes wild with murderous lust, falling to her knees with her hands in the dirt. The demons' cries were terrible - drowning out my thoughts, angering me--

The murderous demons, at some command I did not intercept, charged at once. Janos rose up slowly, bleeding, and I, helpless and somehow stunned beyond measure, found myself at the mercy of a dozen or so. Finding my strength, I fought against them while Janos watched from behind the eyes of his captor, the ignominious Hylden Lord. Amanda swung a large beam of wood at her enemy, cracking it open on their heads, infusing it with every bit of hatred she could muster. She was valiant, but what was a piece of wood to this countless, unswaying horde?

We were defeated. It was not a fair battle, but it somehow still hurts to be so inarguably put down like a pair of clumsy fools. We weren't killed, but subdued long enough to be borne more or less to the tall spires of what was once Janos Audron's beautiful Aerie.


	6. Prisoner's Tend to Escape A Lot

Amanda--

There was no light when I came to. One of the demons - the Hylden - had knocked my senses into pieces the moment I'd arrived. I remembered anger such as I'd never felt before, fighting and biting for all my worth until their filthy blood made me sick. Filled with a grim satisfaction, followed by another bout of helpless anger as I fumbled my way in the dark, I called out Kain's name. Wasn't I supposed to see better at night? Where were my vampire senses now?

The agony between my shoulders was more than I could bear. That, coupled with my hatred for the Hylden, gave me reason to rage against the door once I found it. A single beam of light had begun to flow from beneath it, and there I hit the wall with fire, lightning, until the room smelled thickly of smoke and magic.

Exhausted, I fell to the floor and pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes, feeling them wet with bloody tears. I gave myself up to sobbing until there wasn't any more energy even for that. Then I fell to sleep, a wicked thirst overcoming me. All I could see in my sleep was Torrent's face as I crushed it or burned it or cut it apart with knives.

When I came awake one more time, I was immediately aware that there were demons around me. They plucked at my clothing and touched my hair, silent until one of them spoke with a little simper.

"Pretty. So pretty. Little vampire bat."

Then another voice joined him, deeper, and no less unpleasant. "I wonder if the Lord will let us keep her. No matter - vampires are our enemy and they must all perish."

"No, no. Said to watch," the first replied. "Lord said 'no hurting'."

"More specifically, he said don't kill her. I have not had fun in so very long. Surely he would understand if we--"

"No, no, no!" the high-pitched wail came. "I know what Master said! No hurting!"

"Get out of my way!"

Amanda scuttled back, immediately alert, and watched in the dim blue light as the two demons - a large goat-like beast with the deep voice, and a small dog-like creature with six twisted legs and only one working eye - began to fight each other. The big goat demon, with one broken horn, threw the other against the wall and made it crack. The first squealed as the goat plucked him up from one leg and threatened to swing him around some more.

"Stop!" Amanda cried, quickly formulating a plan. "One of you should go ask him. I don't think he'll mind if you ask..." She trailed off, realizing she had the undivided attention of both of them, even though the six-legged one was still dangling in the air by one of his scrawny legs.

"What are you talking about, vampire?" the goatling spat, dropping his companion.

"You don't want him to get angry if you hurt me without asking him first. I'm a prisoner of war and I could be valued if I was intact."

The goatling, obviously the one of bigger brains for one so bulky, smiled crudely. "You speak truly, baby bat," he said thoughtfully. "But while my companion is a babbling idiot, I am not a muddle-brained fool. I am not going anywhere. But I will see to it that you are not harmed, for I know the wrath my lord can bring upon lesser beings such as ourselves. One condition - you will stay over there just where you are."

The six-legged one scuttled away into the shadows where he felt safer away from his big friend. I could only clench my hands before I responded in a thick, anger-laden voice. "Can't you see... that I'm thirsty.. and I'm in pain... and wouldn't it be better that I not die?"

"I'd kill you myself if such an act was now permissible. Why should I make you comfortable?"

"What are your names, then?" I said angrily, looking away.

The Hylden goat said, "I am Baltan. That sniveling mass of failure is Sharim."

"H-Hi," said Sharim, waving two of his little arms at me from the shadows. At least he tried to sound friendly.

I clearly hadn't considered the millenia old enmity between the vampires and their adversaries. Clearly I'd get nowhere trying to get help from them - and I absolutely refused to cry in front of them. So I kept my hands neatly in my lap, looking blankly at the wall as I felt my flesh squirm and writhe beneath my skin against my back. The pain was excruciating, but my madness lent me some numbness to it. But even that shell of protection was melting away, and my lower lip trembled and my mouth filled with blood from inside me.

_**--Kain--**_

Simply put, Janos would not let me out of his sight. He could not take the sword from me, much as he tried. I killed any Hylden scum who came close to trying. But somehow I ended up being escorted in front of Janos everywhere we went in the Aerie. The Hylden Lord gloated, but inwardly I knew that somewhere the gentle creature, Janos, was responsible for my proximity to the Hylden being. Once Janos's body had to be nourished, Janos would become powerful enough to overtake the Hylden Lord for a short time, and then I would have to kill him.

We walked to the tallest spires. I watched Janos stare angrily toward the horizon where the white Pillars were newly raised. He knew that each Hylden was valued for their prowess. No more of them would emerge from that hell that had twisted their bodies into sick, ungainly shapes.

Aside from worrying when I would get my chance to destroy this monster for the second time, I was desperately sick with worry for my daughter. The Hylden Lord told me she was safe, but how could I ever be sure?

"I want to see her," I whispered fiercely. "I want to see her now. And then we'll talk."

"We're not on speaking terms, vampire filth," the Hylden Lord replied coldly. "Every moment you waste worrying about her, you give me more ammunition to hurt you with."

I cursed silently. What would stop the demon from hurting her? Aside from handing over Soul Reaver, I would have done anything. But I could never give up the sword. The wings of Janos stirred as he stared at the Pillars with hatred. "They are not whole," he said to me. "As long as there are no more guardians, those pillars are still vulnerable to destruction. But you knew that, didn't you?"

It began to rain. The sky was heavy with clouds and the Pillars vanished into them like beams of light, turning the clouds pink and grey. The day had gone on so long I had no desire to make it any harder than I had to. Because of Amanda, I knew I would do anything he told me in return for her safety - or almost anything.

I remembered the human, Torrent, and my gut burned with hatred. We had been betrayed, thought we had the element of surprise when in fact Torrent was leading us straight into the Hylden's arms. I bit my lip, fiercely overcome with hatred. Torrent would die by my hand and his soul would find no solace in the devouring madness of Raziel's soul.

"You know you're going to lose, Kain," the Hylden Lord continued quietly, as if consoling me on my loss. "And you know that you will never truly take up the mantle of Scion of Balance. You were meant to die, and all of those efforts of changing fate only delayed your death. You wasted your own time by tarrying in that other world with your new childe."

"It was not purposeful. I will not stand here and try to justify my so-called short-comings!" I snarled, reaching for the Soul Reaver again. The guards inched closer, and I bared my fangs at them in amusement.

Suddenly the Hylden Lord, Janos, lurched to one side and gave a low moan of discomfort. In turn, I drew closer and waited. The guards didn't know what to do - most of them probably were unaware that Janos Audron still existed in the fragile balance within his own body.

"Kain!" Janos wheezed, leaning against the wall. "Come closer. YOU! Stay away from us!" This last was directed at the guards. They obeyed, but their eyes had grown hard and cold. Green smoke unfurled from their eyes like endless banners.

I drew as close as I dared, brandishing the Reaver which thrummed for violence. Raziel would never fully be sated, for whatever agonies were tormenting him in the blade no amount of blood-bathing would assuage. "What is it? Speak, Janos!"

The next words struck me like a blast of cold wind. They came fast and all in one breath, as Janos clutched my shoulder. "He has the stone!" he hissed, and before I could ask him who he meant the Hylden Lord returned and flung me away against the wall. I snarled simultaneously with him. "Just you try getting it from him!" he sneered, before he paused and cursed again, silently fuming that he had given it away so easily.

I smiled. "What will you do? You can't go near the human, because he has it. It's touch scalds like fire... it kills your kind, like it once did mine."

"What do you mean?" the Hylden Lord whispered, weakened. He signalled to one of the guards, who rushed away.

"You're looking quite pale," I purred, stroking the Reaver's hilt thoughtfully. I could have killed him then, but I had better plans. "You should go hide in the dark before the sun rises, my most beloved enemy."

I slew the first Hylden guard that came close as I dodged in a mist too thin to grab onto. The Reaver was solid enough as it cut through its flesh, filthy blood gouting from a split throat. The guard wavered for a moment, reaching up curiously to touch skin, then fell over stunned. A blow like that couldn't kill a demon, but it gave me time to escape from its comrades. I didn't care how fast I ran, as long as I called out to Amanda.

_**Amanda**_

Sharim crept closer and sat almost out of arm's reach. He obviously liked me, which didn't exactly improve my mood. Then I heard my father calling to me.

_Amanda, tell me where you are or escape, because I'm going to find the human!_

_Not before I do, _responded I, who, given the chance, would have laughed and spit down the jugular of that wretched human the first moment I saw him after tearing off his head. _I don't know where I am, but I'm in a chamber with two demons named Baltan and Sharim. One of them is dumber'n a box o' rocks, and the other's pretty level-headed. I don't like Baltan, the level-headed one._

"You know," I whispered, "if I don't eat soon, I'm gonna be in bad shape... and Kain wouldn't like that, and he probably won't do what the Hylden Lord wants." I knew I was counting on his stupidity, and the obvious boredom of Baltan was making the goat demon sleepy, so I whispered as loud as I could without gaining Baltan's attention.

"What should I do?" Sharim simpered, looking desperately toward the door.

"Let me out. Where do you keep the blood that feeds your master's body?"

"It's...It's... I'll show you!" Sharim lurched up, politely excusing himself, before going toward the door. The moment it opened I slammed into Sharim's back with all my strength, then scrambled over his twitching body through the open crack, feeling it nearly close on my ankle.

"I'm out!" I shouted, and dashed away. Victory filled my every heartbeat - I'd tricked them! As I ran, I nearly skipped and fell, but I refrained from such indignity.

I rounded a corner, then fell back as though blown away. My flesh began to burn nearly instantly, for I was standing fully-facing the terrible sun.


	7. Superficial Sacrificial

**--Torrent--**

The apparition that appeared before me was hellish. I could barely stand to look at it. In fact, I'd rather have not. But its gaze held me like an anchor to my conscious existence. The sleeping poison that coursed through my veins was wearing off, but not enough for me to discount that I might have been seeing a simple nightmare.

The apparition spoke, swaying slowly from side to side as though unable to tolerate being where it was. "Use that thing around your neck against them," it repeated harshly. "Use it well. And you will have to protect yourself against the vampires. Your traitorous ways have lifted you from under their protection. They all mean to kill you now."

"I know," I moaned, turning my head away, biting my hand anxiously. "I know they hate me. There's not a soul in this world who cares if I live or die."

"I care. You'd better live, or I'll hunt down your spirit until you go mad. Awake; get out of this room as quickly as you can." Then the apparition trembled and doubled over, as though terribly pained before vanishing in a wisp of dark green smoke.

When I finally broke free of the poison, I was free to move about in my highly comfortable room. I took a moment to enjoy the soft plush blankets, blood red (naturally), the long dark curtains that kept out most of the sunlight, and the gentle breeze that blew in through the open window. The floor was emblazoned in marble with the symbol of the sword that Kain wielded. The high chandelier seemed to burn constantly by magic, a soft yellow light bathing the entire room.

I was still in awe. Then the words of my tormentor came back, and I touched the stone about my neck with a strange reverence. Only then did I realize why none of the demons wanted to come near me.

The demon looking after me stood up when I suddenly climbed out of bed. My head spun and my stomach rebelled, but I swallowed and kept my nerves down. I brandished the stone, lifting it up from under my tunic with a little smile. "If this can do you harm, then you'd better stay away. You can't stop me from leaving!"

The demon snarled, suddenly dropping the friendly and fake facade of concern and backed away, crowding itself against the bed where I had been. I ignored him and walked to the window, peering out. Damn. It was still daytime. And there was a lot of movement going on outside my door.

I tentatively went to my bedroom door and opened it, peering outside. The marble floor was cold under my bare feet. I collected my boots from next to the door and put them on, ducking back when suddenly a flying demon nearly clipped my head with a wingtip and sailed on down the hallways, shrieking orders to the nearest individual.

"Come with me," I commanded the demon guard, who looked like a sort of gazelle with electricity crackling from its two giant spindle-like hands. "And don't you say a word, or I'll cram this jewel right down your bloody throat." My voice was even and calm, as though I truly meant it. But in truth the last thing I wanted was to get near those teeth.

"If anyone asks, tell them you're escorting me to the Hylden Lord," I said, and nudged him along, waving the sphere at his face. "Go on!"

I can't say I didn't enjoy ordering him around. The demon shivered with every step, hating his plight, hating the torment that would come when his Master knew he had been so helpless. And useless. I bent my head toward him and whispered, "Ask the one coming down the hall what's causing all this commotion."

He did, and as they exchanged words, their voices twisted and warped beyond most hope of understanding, and without even being asked my captive said, "He says that the girl has escaped and Kain is looking for her... and you."

"Did he say where they were going?"

"They don't know yet."

"Then let us find them, my ugly friend."

**--Kain--**

I stumbled upon the wretched scene as if I had only just met her before. She was crippled against a wall in the shadows away from the fading daylight. Her escape had taken her straight into the arms of pain, and I had only just arrived.

I grabbed her gently, adjusting her so that she was safely out of harm's way. She seized my arm, gasping like a drowning woman, her white teeth pale and fragile-looking in the dimming glare of the sun. I only stared helplessly as she flailed until she grew still. Hatefully still. I gripped her tighter in hopes that the pain might bring her back. To no avail, she lay as still as death, what seemed as lifeless as trees. I had no more blood to give to her now, and to do so would merely end us both.

I hate known hatred before. When Umah had betrayed me, I hadn't the heart to forgive her. I never had the heart for anything other than trying do to things right. What the Fates demanded of me, I didn't know. But I wanted it so badly to let me keep her by my side... and then she was gone.

I looked up, blinded by tears. There were demons about, although none of them touched me and I was too broken to be perplexed.

Then I turned my head; I saw him. There among the broken balconies of the Aerie in the daylight, Torrent was standing with a dead demon vanishing by his side. The demon crumbled into a mystified dust beside him, and Torrent held the Nexus Stone in his hand. He looked white as a sheet and hardly dared to move... but I knew what I wanted now. I had already painted such a picture in my mind as how this weak little thorn in my side was going to meet his death.

"You won't forgive me?" the boy said in a heavily weary voice.

My lips pulled back slightly in a pleased snarl. "Never." A wordless growl escaped me, and I had barely begun to process my action when I executed it. The Reaver cut into Torrent's body, and the resistance I met was only small when he collapsed in two pieces, rightly eviscerated. One half fell to the right; the other fell to the left. The life barely emptied from his eyes when he registered what I had done, and I caught the Nexus Stone from his hands when he collapsed.

I was a merciless, angry and unforgiving bastard. At one point my mere existence was quite unforgivable. But I was alive now, and Amanda wasn't, and I felt the irrepressible desire to hurt something badly.

I crouched, drinking from the body as I delivered the Reaver into his chest. The spirit still lingered in the body even though it had failed, and the blade sucked up the soul greedily, angrily as if siphoning it had not sated its rage. I drank from the corpse until it was white as paper, dead as dirt. Dead as love in the winter.

_I failed Raziel._

Janos Audron's approach registered in my mind. I turned swiftly to face him, the leather attached to the Nexus Stone wrapped around my wrist as the stone dangled from my hand. _Raziel, I'm so sorry. _The blade was whirling and spitting with hunger. But instead of the Hylden Lord I saw the vampire, helplessly holding his hands out beseechingly.

"Forgive me, Chosen One," he said hoarsely. "I could do nothing to stop him." His wings drooped, morose. Forlornly, he looked away and closed his eyes, folding his hands inside the sleeves of his long jacket.

"Don't...Don't give me your excuses," I replied brokenly, and lunged toward him. I missed purposefully but he didn't move or bat an eye-lash. "Come here so I can finally kill you and put you down like the contemptible doddering fool you are!"

"Time is short!" Janos snapped, stepping away as I drew close, the Nexus Stone gleaming. "You may yet save her soul!" The ancient vampire pressed a hand against his chest, knowing full well that his heart was the centerpiece of his existence.

"Where is the Hylden Lord?" I pressed my hand against my forehead, staring at the darkness there. Then I sheathed the Reaver for one last time before picking my daughter from the ground and carrying her into the shadows again, her skin still smoldering terribly. The ancient vampire trailed behind carefully, dragging his feet miserably as if he had done this terrible wrong.

"Hiding," Janos growled, his step growing stiff and troubled. "Under these circumstances, it would be wise to heed my advice before you kill me."

"How can I save her," I said angrily, "when she's already dead?"

"Then...use this." Then, to my blank-faced horror, he plunged his hand through his chest cavity, through his shirt and worked his fingers around his beating, unholy heart. He doubled over in agony, growling with pain before twisting his hand free with a part of his heart. It wriggled in his hands in an effort to beat, missing its essential half. Without hesitation he went to Amanda who lay now on the floor. He tore at her chest, pushed it inside where it seemed to do nothing but glow briefly and then fade.

I seized Janos as he rubbed his hands clean of his own blood. "Will it work?" I demanded angrily. Janos shied away as far as he could from me and the Nexus Stone.

"I do hope so, Kain," he replied, the use of my name striking me as somehow very odd. From these very lips I had heard 'vampire filth' so many times it didn't seem right to hear him call me for once by my name.

"Will it still beat when you die?" I said quietly.

"My never stop beating... perhaps I should have given all of it. Then finally you may kill us both and bring peace to us at last," Janos murmured disconsolately. I sneered, uncaring.

"Don't worry. I have not quite finished what I've started here. Look at me, Janos - are you prepared to die?"

"It is the least I can do for my kind. My time is done. Though I have lived a long time, and will miss the world, I must leave it now. Do your worst, Kain." Janos smiled slightly, folding his hands behind his back and puffing out his chest proudly.

"My intention was the opposite - My very _best_." With that, I raised the Reaver again, which I thought screamed with righteous delight...

**Author's Notes:** I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen now.. but I'll continue writing anyway. Because honestly, the best things happen when you just don't ask question and just write...


	8. Forest of Starting Over

Author's Notes: OH. My. God. I haven't seen one solitary review in ages. Is it because people have found something else to read and they enjoy? Oh, man... well, I struggled through this with grinding teeth because now I have no idea what am I to do... but I know what to do, and that's probably to make it go into Kain's New Dominion... blah.

Amanda--

The spinning, nauseating journey into Hell was nothing like I had expected. I thought I was to open my eyes and find myself at those Black Gates that paintings represented with garish burning fire and blood and gore; I was disappointed.

I floated instead in a darkness that seemed remarkably familiar. But I felt like I was standing upright. All around me was this darkness, and far below underneath my bare feet (I was completely nude) was a monster. It writhed with what appeared to be a thousand tentacles with eyeballs and flesh like bad meatloaf.

I thought, Well. This certainly looks interesting.

Further comment died from my mind when I noticed that I wasn't alone in my high place. Distance meant nothing to me who knew only that I was 'up' and Rancid Meatloaf was down.

I turned around and saw behind me. A stone fell somewhere in my stomach down to my feet and I jumped back. A winged figure stood glowing near me, with eyes like blue-green fire. He reached out to me, featureless but familiar. I haltingly took his hand in mine and felt his fingers convulse and tighten about mine.

"What's going on?" I asked him. "Where am I?"

"You're dead--Well, not dead. You are stuck. A few more slip-ups and you may not be able to escape Him."

I started, pulling him closer as if I could understand him better. "Who?"

"The dark one. The parasite that is sucking away the souls of this world to grow more powerful. He says he is a god, but he's a monster. I know this because I am trying to help destroy him."

"Who...Who are you?" I asked, and wished I could feel my mouth because I knew it would have become dry with a fierce anxiety by now. His touch felt good, and it was the only thing that kept me certain that I was still alive. He reached up very slowly with his free hand, and for a moment he just looked at me, touching my face, my hair.

He said, "Amanda." As if I didn't understand. As if I were a dumb idiot who couldn't see the truth, like a spitting bonfire through a night in the land of the dead. Well, that's not a very good analogy because he rather was a bright thing in a land that was, presumably, for dead folks. Or on the way there.

But my mind emptied and my heart blossomed for joy. Thinking here was clearer than thinking through my body - I was mad, my body was poisoned and my heart aching, but here I could say the things I wanted without having them come out all wrong. I threw my arms around him, crushing him close and didn't need to open my eyes to know that he was doing just the same. So tightly... we were crushing ourselves into one person--

Then it was ecstasy like I'd never known. Without a doubt Raziel was with me in a way no two people who loved each other could ever be outside of this realm. I didn't mind that our strange union was before the sight of some ungodly little monster; all of me and all of Raziel doubled up together to make a wholly new thing of bright compassion and love and fierce protection. Why hadn't I felt him before? Was this why I was so repulsed by the sword, because... I wanted to be near it?

Then a darkness slipped over us. The monster receded, and I heard an outraged voice screaming with perfectly manic glee, "MINE, do you hear meeee..."

Kain--

Janos didn't fight - as he had said, he wanted to die. But the Hylden Lord did not. It took every bit of the demon's strength to reacquire possession of his body. If he won (not when), he would have to take a very long hiatus to replenish his own strength. This battle classified as any 'last battle' in history, or in any of Amanda's technological things called 'video games'.

It was, to my disappointment, painfully easy to destroy him. In a handful of simple maneuvers, the Hylden Lord looking ridiculous and immature trying to keep up with my speed. In a juvenile attempt to slow me down, he threw dirt in my face, which only succeeded in making me sneeze before I pinned him to the ground and impaled him.

He burned, a terrifying mass of screaming vampire flesh, demon spirit and fire. I quickly retreated and did not even bother to watch him die. I owed Janos no respect whatsoever for being so weak. Or even the Hylden Lord.

The demons, fearing the same fate, fled my path as soon as I came near, carrying my broken daughter against my chest. Then I stopped at the edge of the shadows, looking without seeing toward the floor. Where did I want to go now? I loathed the Aerie and its poisoned look, how everything was wrong and black and twisted. I wanted to see it destroyed, bury its unhappy secrets to fade with the passage of irrepressible time.

That night, I was forced to take a long way out of the Aerie, taking a cold dark tunnel, carrying my daughter often across my shoulder. Then I had to swim through a final, twisting tunnel way only to find myself blocked by a huge grate at the entrance. Raziel could have made it through... but I was not Raziel, and even if I could have turned into mist and continued onwards, I had Amanda to think about.

So I went back, blasted a hole through a wall, and leapt down onto a stone outcropping, leapt from stone to stone, slipping and dousing my leg in the water more than once.

Then I was back into the forest where we'd first met the dark lord on the shore. I kept going, realizing how badly I had been shaking for the past twenty minutes of walking through the trees.

I set her down. She was drying off, and I built a small fire to help get her warm. Would she awaken? I didn't know. She already looked better. Her flesh was healing, and she seemed to attain some look of normalcy. I hated to drag her around so undignified.

"You deserve better," I growled, stroking her damp hair. It felt nice to feel it against my fingers, to feel the life suffusing her body, relentless heart that beat inside of her.

Hunger gnawed at me. I hunted, found a wandering party of humans hunting deer and killed one of them. Innocent blood was more rectifying than the blood of evil. I wanted nothing more than to sate my hunger without shame, but I did find myself a mite shameful of my gluttony.

I rested in the shadows, watching Amanda out of the corner of my eye. When the sun rose and I was satisfied that we were safely hidden from prying eyes, I covered her with a thick shroud I'd stolen from the mortals and drifted off to sleep, clutching the Soul Reaver in my right claw.

I dreamed as I hadn't done in centuries. It was a fierce, powerful dream that was almost a perfect mockery of reality. It came in three parts; the first the most horrific.

I saw the white back of a person, perhaps a human being, convulsing as though violently ill. The dream was silent, except for a raging, pounding heart. The skin broke in two places, and the muscles flexed, straining for freedom as the blood streamed in lone, red lines down the skin. Then at once, the flesh slid away, or rather, the protuberances from the flesh came forward. The thick, floppy objects stretched, covered in gore and a clear, greenish liquid, revealing pale black veins in skin that was wax-yellow and elastic.

A voice punctured the silence. "Understand this, Kain."

The next part of the dream showed what looked like a night sky, courting the moon, but it was all topsy-turvy, twisted and convoluted. I surmised I must have been looking into the surface of a body of water. I tried to lift my immaterial head and saw a glimpse of a building choked skyline. It may have been from the other world.

But then the perspective shifted and the world spun, revealing that the sky was not entirely empty. Large, fleeting figures filled the opposite horizon. They were so far away, they could have been anything. A flock of migrating fowl, or some other type of flier. Then the figures got closer... and I saw faces--

"Understand this as well. The future will come slowly..." The voice murmured again. I was not bothered with wondering about the familiarity, for my dark dreams had taken yet another, final turn.

There was a mildly impressive castle rising through the dirt of a fallen empire. The castle became larger... black spires punctured the starlit skies, winged beings floating from spire to spire, and often meeting in between to float upon the strong winds and exchange a few brief words. I couldn't hear what they said.

Then I noticed upon the front wall above the guarded gates a blood red cloth emblazoned with my clan symbol... the symbol that I now realized were wings on an individual. The image stayed in my mind until I woke up the next evening, finding Amanda just as I left her, sound asleep.

The journey took me farther from my familiar homeland than I could have imagined possible. I traveled with my daughter through savage wilderness not previously known to man. Vast empires had once stood here. The ruins of villages became uncommon as I fled civilization and entered a dark realm where none had trespassed on two legs for hundreds of years.

I knew not what led me to these hallowed forests and between the tall, fortified trees. Not a single tree had been felled by the axes of men or vampire here. The moonlight created knives of blue and white, bathing every surface in an eerie blue glow, details spilling into each other into a dreamlike blur. I was humbled by this sobering show of beauty. I had surrounded myself with the decimation of a world for thousands of years... and I had not seen a forest that had this aura of power.

I felt their power around me when I camped one night, and Amanda had been fed by a deer I'd felled earlier. She wasn't asleep much anymore, and I had managed to get her to follow me places. She was hypnotized, as I was, by the beauty of the forest just now. She ate when she was hungry; she slept when she was tired.

She wasn't altogether interesting anymore, but I spoke to her anyway as I would have spoken to the Soul Reaver.

"It is beautiful," I said, nodding as I chewed a piece of deer bone, sucking the marrow. I crossed my legs, a small fire made of fallen dried branches. "So much life."

I continued on, switching ends as I turned the bone around and sucked the marrow from that end. In between greedy noises of suckling, I spoke, unaware of how I really sounded. "It...seems to me... that I'm being led... not that I mind. I actually don't mind being fated to go somewhere. As long as I'm prepared."

"Here." She looked up suddenly. "Right here. What you said has marked this place. Your words will echo throughout time. It will be the cornerstone of your empire. To lead, be led, and be prepared." Her eyes glittered with perfect clarity. Then the shine went out of them and she seemed... to be herself.

She slumped over, and her head fell into my lap. "...How long have I been...asleep?"

"Long enough." I found that I could not speak well at all. "Have you... rested well?"

"Perfectly," she said, nuzzling and purring. "But we're a far bit away from the Pillars, aren't we? You should have two palaces... one here, and one with walls built around the Pillars to keep everyone out. Big walls!"

"Are you hearing yourself, girl? You're rambling!" I stroked her hair anyway, but my mind was elsewhere. I tried to imagine myself acquiring the masses needed to build such fortresses... and knew that I would, somehow. With a sardonic grin I knew that I definitely would.


	9. Remaking

Author's Notes: It's become painfully clear that I am going to have to jump forward in time in my own story. I hate doing it, but it must be done. I should probably take awhile to seriously think about this chapter, but I want to keep writing at the moment and I don't like to stop and think often. Actually, I just did a bunch of thinking between this sentence and the previous one. For now, this chapter will illustrate the importance of Kain being a jackass when it comes down to be a controlling bastard - something he's very good at. I haven't mentioned Amanda and Raziel much... so I'd probably better do it in the next chapter or two.

- - -

**The Tiger  
William Blake**

**Tiger Tiger. burning bright,  
In the forests of the night;  
What immortal hand or eye.  
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?**

In what distant deeps or skies.  
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?  
On what wings dare he aspire?  
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,  
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?  
And when thy heart began to beat.  
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,  
In what furnace was thy brain?  
What the anvil? what dread grasp.  
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears  
And watered heaven with their tears:  
Did he smile His work to see?  
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger Tiger burning bright,  
In the forests of the night:  
What immortal hand or eye,  
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

_14 years later_

_--Amanda--_

The castle was finished. The fortress, I meant, which was impressive in size and fairly astonishing considering how much time we had to build it and the amount of workers we had amassed. Kain insisted that it was all my doing that I had convinced so many of the humans to come join us. It felt good to give them something to believe in. The aches in my body began to go away, and although I remembered very little about my dying and coming back to life, it didn't really pose that big of a question for fourteen years.

I was busy; I was writing things down. I was in my room, preparing construction on the wall that would keep the Pillars safe from vandals when Kain called me from my room by sending one of his servants after me. All we had were humans. But that would soon change. I just didn't know how.

The long corridors were bare. The vampire stronghold, it was called. But I wanted to name it something cool, like the Castle of Pain or something. My head was full of plans and I was excited, but I could tell that this place would need some serious remodeling when it came to decor. Even my bedroom was bare, my store room looked miserable, and the only bit of decoration accorded to anyone was Kain's room.

Kain's throne was not exactly homely. There were three banners standing behind one another hanging from the high, vaulted ceiling. The chamber was massive, with chandeliers lighting every edifice to reveal anything that might be hidden. Every banner was in Kain's color, and a soft plush carpet filled the room from wall to wall. Eyeing it, I realized that the vampire never would get over being the dark god he supposed he was. In the sconces of the walls were hung burning braziers, making the stones along the wall turn an entirely different color.

I marched toward him. He was not seated presently, but standing in front of his throne, looking pensive and not altogether pleased. He held the Soul Reaver in his hands, gently swatting the flat part of the blade into the opposite palm. I kneeled before him, only to feel an cloven claw close on my arm and lift me up. "Stop it," he hissed. "You don't bow to me now, not until until we've gathered your brothers."

"Brothers?" I said, rubbing my arm and yawning with boredom. "I don't have any brothers."

He waved a claw at me and winked, circling around toward one of the windows, whose tapestries (also in his color) covered them during the day. Now they were open, spilling gorgeous moonlight onto the floor where the torchlight didn't go. A moment of nostalgia thudded through me. I thought, _I love this place. This is our place, damn it. The place we made together._

"You don't have any brothers now," Kain informed me with a slight chuckle. "But regardless, you do have them."

"What are you playing at?" I sighed, growing impatient. "I'm not in the mood. I haven't even begun to start designing the walls that will protect the Pillars."

"Patience! You'll see. I love to keep my hapless children in the dark at all times possible. Even you."

"Especially me," I muttered bitterly, glaring at him. I wore a simple but glorified pair of trousers, a tight black shirt underneath a layer of spider chain mail that hugged my figure. I had a cloak that spread over one shoulder with Kain's symbol on it, which Kain had said made me look like one of his old lieutenants.

Kain had reached one of the windows, and drew back the tapestry farther than the others. His gold eyes glittered even more in the darkness; something was definitely on his mind, and it only pissed me off more that he wouldn't include me. Who the hell else would he tell? With a quiet growl, I prowled up behind him, and then seized a handful of his cape and gave it a pull. He stiffened but gave me no backward glance.

I embraced him from behind with an affectionate purr. "Tell me. Who is going to keep your secrets for you until I get these so-called brothers, hm? There aren't any vampires here, right now. Unless--" I gasped with dawning comprehension. "No!" I said with frank disbelief.

"Damn you for being so clever." Kain twisted away and smiled with as much affectionate as his inhuman face could muster. "Yes. I plan to go back in time. Just a little ways. I want to take a look for some capable humans to turn. I have the strength, not much... but I am sure that I will be able to change three."

"Why can't you look among the humans here and now? I...I don't want you to go back in time and end up triggering something terrible. I know! I could...I could try to fix the portal to my world. I could convince Darius's father that--"

"Do you think he would abandon his world and his brood to come to a world where vampires are sorely outnumbered?"

"He could bring them with him--" I insisted, scrabbling for some other solution. I know that Kain was desperate for strength, could not have the patience now to build an army of fledglings, but that was what had to be done. He just didn't want to do it the normal way.

But Kain wasn't listening. He refused to listen. Something about his eyes scared me at that moment, because then he said, "There's one Time Streaming Chamber left. So don't you tell me what I can and cannot do, _child._"

"I can tell you that there aren't any Time Streaming Chambers, and the only one who could send you back in time would be the Elder God, and I don't think he'd be willing to send you anywhere than to the fiery beginnings of this wretched world. Don't be daft, dammit! I know you want to be prepared, and... and even though you're scared to make mistakes--"

"I do not make mistakes!" Kain roared, making the very chandeliers rattle. He lowered his voice, letting the sound of his voice ring in my ears and apparently throughout the entire fortress. He bent close, so that his fangs glinted very close to my face, and I withdrew a little frightened. "I make choices. And what do you know of the Time Streaming Chambers?"

"In my spare time, I looked for them. There isn't a single one left. The Elder God has destroyed them all. I thought you knew that already." I kept my eyes away. Kain tensed, and slowly clenched his talons before walking away from me. He knew I wasn't lying. I hadn't told him a single lie since the moment I met him, and that was the absolute truth. Maybe a small white lie once. But it was a joke and we'd laughed...

I knew the Elder God. I had heard his voice chasing after me in the darkness sometimes at night, and he filled my nightmares during the day. It was as though he knew me intimately, in ways I couldn't fathom. If Raziel had been alive, I would have consulted him...

The Elder God had indeed destroyed the Time Streaming Chambers. Once the Pillars had been restored, Kain's penance was made and all was well... except that the Elder God was still lurking in the earth, and the Pillars still hadn't had new vampires take their roles as the Guardians of each house. I could have been one. In fact, I hadn't even thought about it until recently. How exactly did one become a Guardian? Kain was the Guardian of Balance, and I was just his little girl. Sneering, I turned and left the throne room while Kain moldered by his throne.

Again I went to the library to pluck out my favorite tome - the one that wasn't too hard to read after studying Nosgothian texts. It was about the Pillars themselves, and the pages were almost as old as I was. The book had been rewritten a hundred times over, since the dawning of those monoliths which desperately needed guarding. Every time I read it, I scrutinized the pages about the Nature Guardian, and what it represented. Everything about the Pillars was like magic. Each one represented a part of life and existence that generally had something to do with the way things were.

Balance, Time, Death, Nature, Conflict, Mind, Energy, States, and finally, Dimension. I sighed, reading the words over again with some difficult. I still wrote my journal in plain old English, which made it remarkably easy to encode my stuff. I certainly knew that Kain would never be able to read it. Even if I had nothing to hide from him.

2 Years Later

_--Kain--_

Three fledglings stood in front of me, torchlight dancing in the throne room. Amanda, being eldest, stood on the left and her two new siblings, Faust and Raoul, stood beside her. Faust, the middle sibling, had dark soft black hair, sharp, angular features and a perpetual dazed look as if he never knew what was going on. But knowing him for a year, I was wiser to that. He was a deep thinker, a powerfully cunning pup, whose uncanny subtle manner of knowing just what to say often grated my nerves. He wore a fresh pair of sturdy, black leathers, a soft white shirt almost as pale as his off-white skin, and buckled boots that made a sturdy knock on even the Throne room's floors.

Amanda wore what I considered a far too masculine attire, but it suited her. She'd cut off most of her hair, and it spiked back and out of her furiously blazing hazel eyes. She was glaring at me furiously.

Finally, to the far right, was Raoul, my sadistic, worrying child. His brown hair was combed back into a loose pony tail that hung down between his shoulders, much in the manner I often wore my bone-white tresses. His embodiment of vampire royalty was dark green pants, black shirt, and a barbed wire necklace around his throat that sometimes cut into his skin, making his pale flesh bleed.

"Three. And I am in sore need of the rest of you. But I am at my energy's end. For now, you will have to do. You understand my house rules?" I purred at them, pacing back and forth in front of the trio like a prowling wolf. I suspect Amanda didn't care much for the rules. She was old enough to wander where she pleased. Her siblings understood that much. Raoul had already learned his first painful lesson during after six months of his new life... he'd fallen in with a very bad crowd, and came out burned from the shoulders down. It took weeks to get him back to health again.

Therefore, Raoul nodded with a sneer and Amanda just sighed, as if she couldn't stand a word more. I looked at Faust. The chin nodded slowly up and down, melancholy grey eyes meeting mine.

"Goodie," said Amanda tiredly. "We are all of us accounted for. Remind us why we're standing before you, please."

I straightened stiffly, pinning them each with my stare. "I'm leaving for awhile. Lieutenant Amanda will look after the fortress. I will be pleased if I could return and find it still in one piece, is that also understood?"

Amanda went straight to her question, growling, "What do you mean you're leaving?"

"Is that understood?" I repeated harshly, taking her chin roughly in my grasp and giving it a shake. She winced, smiled, and nodded.

Raoul gave a derisive sniff, yawning so that everyone could see his pierced, pink tongue. The way I met this would-be fledgling is an endearing tale. Perhaps I'll relate it later on, but not now. Raoul said, "Are you going hunting for that old squid you told us about? Why can't you take us along?"

"I'm not baby-sitting you two," I said. "The Elder God needs to be reminded who is now the Scion of Balance, and who is the fallen deity. He needs to learn his place."

"It's going to be dangerous," Amanda murmured, while she took hold of Faust's hand and held it tightly. He leaned in slowly to whisper something to her, and she looked at me again, her brow furrowed. "We have, what...two-hundred vampires in this castle alone, mostly by my doing... and if... if the humans decide we're not worth the risk of being taken over, what will we do?" She did indeed appear haggard. She had somehow managed to find a simple, magical way of raising the dead, but it was as draining as any other way.

Not to mention that some of them had begun dying for no apparent reason other than sheer exhaustion unless they were given monthly doses of blood - blood I rarely could afford to give up. But I steeled myself and did it, because I knew that if I did not, we would fall back in numbers and the weakened peace treaties afforded us through several human links would fall apart and they would storm the fortress. Period.

"I can't promise you my safety," I murmured, and drew her close to me. Faust blushed and stood back, while Raoul rolled his eyes and walked to the windows, staring out of them. "But I can promise you that I shall return, and you can bet your life on it."

She peered up into my eyes; she touched my forehead with her cool fingertips, and bit her lip. "And if I wanted to come with you?"

"I don't need your protection."

"You say that now--" Amanda shook her head, and hugged me. I bared my teeth in distaste, because Raoul was watching out of the corner of his eye with a look that was clearly held nothing of the sort of love Amanda had harbored for my black, shriveled soul.

I drew out the Reaver, and the blade forced Amanda to back away. She eyed it with a mixture of awe and dreaminess. She touched the blade gently before she yelped, drawing her touch away. I hissed, "Careful! I am armed with the Soul Reaver. I'm the Scion of Balance - the Elder God sits underground, waiting for an execution that unfortunately is slow in coming. I'm doing him a favor."

Amanda still gazed at the Reaver. Something about her eyes gave me a slight fright. How they glowed a mixture of blue and green... mostly blue. With stupendous effort, she looked away and at the floor instead. "Just go. And make it fast. But not... too fast, eh?"


	10. Strike A Blow

Author's Notes: Time for Amanda. Yes. She's been in Nosgoth for nearly two decades and I'd like to see how she deals with her stress in her free time. I mean, she can't just go to her room and flick on the PS2 and drown herself in sorrows. Reading books can only go so far when you're a vampire, and you've devoured almost every book in the library. Edit... I actually am going through and making this better..since I wrote Chapter 9 and 10 during the same long day.. it was crazy!

_--Amanda--_

After Kain left what I had dubbed the Castle of Blood, I left my two brothers alone to wander in order to feed myself undisturbed in the lower catacombs where the lazy vampire could dine. I had charmed every level underground, because the first night anyone had ever gone down there, no one came out. The Elder God had penetrated the thick stone walls, disrupting life as we knew it until Kain went down there and started kicking tentacles and taking down names.

Then, when all was finished and the battle was over, I went down there with the heaviest defense spells I could muster, and started magicking every stone I could get my magic on, ensuring that if Squid Boy ever wanted to come through the floor again, he'd better enjoy pain and suffering as much as he did pissing off Daddy K.

Humans, realizing that their gods were monsters, were forced to stay at the castle to meet the needs of our hungers. They were given food and shelter for their pains. I met few vampires along my path, the ones I'd risen from the dead with my feeble necromancy. They looked haggard and pale and like ghouls rather than strong warriors, like my two brothers. I sated my hunger in one of the cages, disposed of the body in a large fire in one of the lower catacombs; later, the ashes would be blessed and spread in the river that flowed directly underneath us where they would return to nature.

To deal with this short supply of people, we bred them and some had only known slavery for their short lives. I sneered at them in their cages as I passed, the young children clinging to their pathetic mothers, who stared with wide red-rimmed eyes. One young man caught my eye. In fact, I did a double-take. His face gazed fearlessly from the cage. Black hair... the familiarity made me look away quickly.

How I came across the magic to make the undead was not easy. There was a book written that took me ages to uncover it in my travels with Kain. It was written by Mortanius, supposedly the very master of death himself ages ago. In it, I had derived the method of bringing about undeath. I altered it a little, according to my limited knowledge, to create something like vampires. Of course it wouldn't work like I wanted, and several dozen corpses later, I finally had what I hoped was something that would last. I was not strong enough to create my own children like my father, who was far more powerful than I. My brothers weren't even old enough to start the all-awaited Change that would befall them and grant them new strength. As a result of my efforts, a little over three hundred wretched, half-decomposed monstrosities moved about the castle to do our bidding. Kain looked upon them with both scorn and pity. He knew I was trying my best... but it still wasn't good enough for me.

I was impatient to find myself beside Kain at the top of the most powerful empire of vampires. I wanted to see myself at the Pillars with Kain and our family and know peace would come at last. He was the bloody Scion of Balance; he could have made a hundred of his own kin but somehow he was holding back on it, as if he were afraid. He was right; he made choices, but he couldn't hide his fear from me. How could anyone with so much responsibility not be afraid of making mistakes?

My dreams were undoubtedly the only thing that kept me relatively happy. In my dreams, I was with Raziel. Kain was there, too. We all ruled Nosgoth together, with faceless brethren. And in my dream, we ravaged the night, destroying those who might become the Sarafan priesthood, following what we knew with our hearts and with iron certainty was the right path.

In reality, I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I watched Kain gather together everything to him. He had no army yet, but with simple parlor tricks, even the most powerful of men can become intimidated by Kain's power. Anyone who thought that Kain was a god would give him anything in exchange for being left alone or protection from raiders.

My wall about the Pillars was half-finished, as it was much simpler and faster to make than a monstrously huge fortress. Sometimes I visited the Pillars at night and sat in their shadows; often times, Kain came after me to remind me about sunrise. But we often sat together in silence, Kain leaning against the Pillar of Balance which had once been his throne in another life. He had wrought ruin upon the Pillars when he refused the sacrifice; now he was trying to undo all that and preserve Nosgoth from the ravages of the Hylden.

I climbed up the dark stairway in pressing, muddy stone darkness. The castle still smelled new in some places, like freshly turned earth. I stalked the corridor and met with Raoul, who was trying not to be harassed by one of the older vampires and yet could not help but instigate an argument. I don't know what it was they were snarling and growling about, but I ignored him, even when he began to follow me and see what I was up to. He couldn't help his curiosity - nobody saw much of me except for when Kain gathered us together to tell us something, which wasn't often because there wasn't really much to talk about that needed our presence.

I climbed another stairway, spiraling up into darkness that smelled new, the tower itself a jagged finger pointing to the moon. Then, out the window I climbed. I swung out on one of the flag poles sticking out from it by my hands. Raoul darted his head out the window, blinking. "What are you doing out there?"

"Hanging out," I said flatly; I began to swing myself back and forth, gripping the flagpole tightly. On the fourth swing I hooked my leg around the pole and wriggled my body up until I straddled the cool metal. I slid down the angle of it until my back pressed against the wall with the pole between my legs. "It's rather breezy. Want to join me?"

Raoul smirked, his harsh features twisting. "Perhaps you can tell me about father. You've never spoken to us about him before. Now that he's gone, you don't have to be afraid of talking about him."

"I am not afraid to talk about Kain," I sighed, appalled at his ignorance. "In fact, I'm sure he'd rather I didn't... just to keep you in your places. I'm not about to tell you all about his weaknesses and his interests. But I can tell you he likes to walk on the beach in the moonlight!" Giggling, I looked out across the trees, the forest broad and wide. Nobody would dare to come here unless they really had to. I closed my eyes and imagined myself floating on air. It wasn't easy with a wall of solid rock against my shoulder blades.

"Let's just hope he's strong enough to defeat that...that thing!" Raoul's voice grated against my ears. I wished he would just shut up and go back inside.

"Well... I can't speak for the Kain, but the last time I heard him talk about the squid monster, he said it was so easy to defeat it." I did not mention the fact that I'd seen it myself, but of course I was dying (or already dead) so how could I have known what I was really looking at? I began to scrabble my way up so I was standing on the pole with my hand on the wall. I looked down. The world shivered and swayed beneath me. Raoul was no longer interested in talking about the Elder God.

"Damn it, be careful. Sister, what are you doing?"

I stepped out onto the pole. It creaked and wobbled. My hand finally left the wall. I ignored Raoul's cries of, "Get back here! Father is going to be furious!"

Oh, yes, he was going to be furious. Among the things he prized in his life, my safety was second only to the safety of the Pillars. I stood high on the flag pole, drunk with the wind in my face, in my short hair. The flag snapped back and forth in a breeze and I wobbled even more. I slowly crouched, gripped the flagpole and sneered at the sky. "I'm fine! See? Raoul, why don't you go back inside if you're going to throw a fit like that!"

"Get back here," Raoul snarled. He shifted, uncomfortable, anxious, glancing back inside the darkened stair then back to me. "Don't make me come out there."

"You're a coward, brother. You're too young to have the courage to come get me. And I'd rather you didn't. Father is most likely far away from here!" My patience was waning. If he didn't stop treating me as if he were my father-- But then, if I wanted to be told what to do, I would have begged Kain to stay. I bounced on the pole, and flung myself forward.

Raoul howled with rage and fear. That soon faded. The rushing of air filled my ears, my pounding heart throbbed in my veins. By instinct, I threw my arms out wide to catch air in wings that weren't there. I spun in mid-air, rolling forward until I saw the next flag pole rushing up to meet me. I reached. The metal stung when it struck my fingers, which closed on it instinctively. I swung about it like a gymnast, once, twice, the sound of my body in the air cracking like a leather whip. I finally stopped and crouched again, and slid back on it and curled up against the wall, where the stones were built outward to form a ledge.

Panting, I scrabbled along the narrow ledge, barely a foot and a half wide. I imagined Raoul's bright, dark eyes staring down, searching for where my body might have fallen. A wretched giggle escaped my lungs. I considered myself lucky Kain wasn't here. He'd be... I couldn't even think of how angry he'd be. I finally found a window where I could open it. I pushed it open and dropped into the room beyond, realizing I had conveniently found myself in Kain's very chambers.

In all honesty, I'd never been here. Kain had forbade me, but since he wasn't here... I looked around. His room, though unusually homely, without very many trinkets just hanging around uselessly for no reason, still made me feel I was invading a very personal part of his life. There was the bed, dark drapes on the walls, wall sconces, candles...all of them constantly lit. I half-expected to see him emerge from behind a privacy screen in the corner of the room.

I approached the door and walked out, shutting it behind me just in time to see Faust running toward me with all due speed.

"Raoul just whispered to me that you just dived off the tower! Why?" he asked in that dull, soft-voiced manner of his. He never got that excited about anything, even when his sister did something crazy. Like jump from a very tall tower for what seemed to be no reason at all.

I answered him honestly. "I just wanted to feel the wind on my face. Going very fast."

Faust looked at me for a moment longer, before taking my hand and leading me down the hall. His touch was cool and soothing. "Next time," he murmured, "Please let us be there. If you want to dive off towers, we could have built a net for you to fall in."

Faust always knew just what to say. That comment had been the best idea I heard out of him for a long time after that.

_--Kain--_

The vampire citadel was as I had left it, decades ago. I still had to take a long bat flight to reach it, and landed among the ruins. The top chamber's roof was still blown apart when Janos, possessed by the demon lord, had flown off to make Nosgoth his own. The crumbled wreckage littered the earth beneath the Citadel's tower along the walls below, stagnating and decomposing beneath a layer of dust and white snow. There was no sign of the rough-speaking natives, humans who dressed in blood red feathers which, at the time, I had found great fun in beating to death with the Reaver. I was quite sad to see them gone.

The last place I saw that still existed was in the Oracle's Chamber. In the room, I circled the pool of water that had transported me here, via the "Oracle's" great powers. The doorway there was still open, broken off its hinges, and the door itself flung across the room as if by great force. Fragile as the state of this building was, I had to go down there and confront the monstrosity who had the title of a deity but not the status of one. Down the long corridor I stalked, hand poised to draw the Reaver, until I reached the broken edge that led down into a shallow, watery entrance where boulders had fallen in from around it. I did not fear the water any longer, so I dropped into the knee-deep pool of stagnant water. It was freezing, but not frozen, and I sloshed as quietly as I could to a tumble of stones at the edge of it.

I spotted an entrance. The stones had fallen over it, conveniently barring my passage. I pulled on one of them, but time had molded these stones together too firmly for me to pass. Decades, and still I was not allowed. I leapt back up to the ancient floor above, shivering from the cold.

"Show yourself," I growled to the darkness. I drew the Soul Reaver. "Raziel, what do you think? Suppose that the foul worm has dug deeper into the earth. Suppose that he finally realized that we are going to win. Perhaps he's hiding down there, never to reveal himself again."

The blade hummed, dangerously close to a spiritual awakening. Something was out here, stirring this power. Breathing deeply, I waited. The earth trembled. And broke open below me, the freezing water pouring into a cavern of such immensity that I actually had to squint to see down into the cavernous blackness.

"I am truly certain," said a disembodied voice that was all to familiar, "that you have stepped carelessly into my domain, Kain... wielding that egotistical valor of yours as if it had the power to protect you. Not here, fiend."

I backed away. The floor was literally devoured by the wet, tree-trunk thick tentacles that writhed up from the earth. The monstrosity's eyes began to appear, glossy, sickly ochre, hour-glass shaped pupils blinking, as the Elder God laboriously pulled its massive body from the earth, through that hole in the Citadel where it had once thrived before I had destroyed it in one of its homes. But this--

It was moving. Squeezing toward me - at me, more and more of the floor collapsing beneath its colossal weight with every intention of coming after me. I brandished Soul Reaver. I did not register the movement of the tentacle that swatted at me. I barely leapt from its bath toward the stairs, where I began to run. The air was too close, suffocating me; there was not enough room at all to fight it. I scampered, fleeing before the Elder God with a loud curse, casting backward glances toward the Elder God who roared in inevitable triumph. _How embarrassing!_

"You are _finished,_ Kain! Did you think I lied when I said you would be mine?"

Another tentacle raced toward me, intent on gripping me and sucking the life out of my body. I brought the Reaver down upon it, then leapt clear up twelve steps, snarling angrily. The tentacle severed at once, and waggled uselessly, bleeding and oozing bloody on the walls, ceiling, steps like a high-pressure water hose.

The Elder God cackled. I realized why. I had overshot my dash; I was now going straight up into the broken chapel where Raziel had fought Janos Audron's possessor. From there, I had no escape whatsoever.

I skidded to a halt in the midst of the wreckage, the whole structure quaking as more bits of the roofing fell inward around where I stood. Trapped. I swallowed, watching as the Elder God hurled his massive body up the stone steps, into the room, tentacles writhing and shivering towards me, and then away, reaching ever skyward.

"No!" I gasped. The tentacles grasped the roof shingles with all their might. "You're going to bring this entire place down around us!"

"Ah... you are a quick-witted one." The voice rolled around me, coming from the creature's mind. I had not seen its terrible maw, for it would be the day I died when I saw it.

I rushed the tentacles, knowing that if I were to hack them loose before it brought the house down, I'd actually make it out in one piece. The stones creaked, wood groaned, but I slashed back and forth. I would not die here. I would not be buried alive. I beheld Amanda's worried, loving gaze in my mind and fought harder, until the tentacles themselves wrapped around me, squeezing. I jammed the Reaver point first into the grayish, purple mass until it released me, flinging me into the wall.

"_Damn you to insufferable Hell!_" The walls trembled again, but the tentacles had all gone, and did not regenerate as I had feared. The Elder God shuddered as I approached one of the great, gaping, unblinking eyes, and I smiled.

"Maybe. But Hell is in fact your realm of omniscient expertise," I muttered, and slammed the Reaver screaming into the eye. The blade roared to life. The metal was ablaze with bloodlust and soul lust, and I could barely hold onto its power as it began to drain the power of the Elder God through its gaping eye. The body - or part of it, it seemed, began to shrivel as the Elder God screamed. And screamed. One second more and the Reaver released its hold upon it, allowing me to jump free as the body disintegrated into a pile of blood and ooze.

"That's a good squid," I sneered into the darkness. Then I chuckled, turning away. I found a spot suitable in the room to dissolve into bats, and left a word in the room for the Elder God:

_"Die."_


	11. People of Agden

Author's Notes: Okay... Kain time. Thank you for reviewing. And...yeah, 'that ugly squid guy' isn't dead yet. Just parts of him. It's weird to write... knowing that Kain will have to lay siege to more of the Squid Man's little dens. But here is Kain, doing his civic duties.

_--Kain--_

I counted myself extraordinarily lucky that when it rained, I was not caught in it at my life's expense. It didn't even so much as sting except when it tried to get into my eyes. I pilfered a cloak from a wagon and left a gold coin in its stead and drew it around my shoulders anyway, because there was a town to visit and I needed to hear some news.

The path quickly became entrenched with thick, clumpy mud. My boots got stuck more than once but I at least reached the cobbled, rain-slicked stones of Agden. The Silver Knight, the tavern where I'd visited often to gather news from other places across Nosgoth. In the gathering gloom, I recalled a moment in my life where I'd once been in a tavern, drinking away my sorrows... it was so long ago I hardly could stand remembering it at all. It wasn't important.

I slipped into a darkened corner next to a group of hardened mountain men who stank of booze and blood and sweet sweat and leather. Their heartbeats, and that of the bartender, were sub-level. I had fed earlier; I needn't risk discovery now.

"That wolf was big," a big man, cloaked in wolverine skin, mumbled. "I'm sure it was almost half the size of Orion's bear he killed last year. I finally have his pelt mounted on my wall! Kryton's sheep are safe now."

A man I'd seen often in the past three years in this tavern, named Tarn, spoke up. "Kryton's always been hollerin' about wolves on his sheep. Will tha' listen to naught one word more of it! Cry 'wolf' one more time.."

I tuned him out. Their conversation did not turn from hunting and their dogs for some time, until someone spoke up from the bar, who wasn't even apart of their group. He had a shock of graying hair, peppered with black, his face craggy with travel. "There was an earthquake by the Lake, didja know?"

I perked my ears slightly. Near the front of the Inn, a figure in a deep burgundy cloak side-stepped out of the rain, into the torch-lit gloom. I didn't notice, intent upon hearing this news in full. Usually it was these drunken reports that gave me some clues to the whereabouts of trouble. Policing this realm was not easy on my own, but thankfully some teleportation portals survived the Elder God's wrath.

"Knocked the friar's fence down and scattered his ugly goats all over the hillside. Then his garden went bad, and his best goat fell ill and died. It was awful!"

I arched a brow. Weaving tapestries is something these men do best, and although they were amusing, I was not so thick-headed as to believe everything they said. Everyone nodded to the news of the earthquake. They might have felt it... was it caused by the Elder God, I wondered?

Suddenly a voice at my ear. I tensed, the Reaver Blade hidden in the folds of the cloak I'd borrowed. "Pay no attention to Tarn."

I turned my eyes carefully. There, the individual in the burgundy cloak, sat a woman, her slightly crinkly hair falling around her face from inside the satin-lined hood, her pale face strangely dark in another way, surreal as if it did not belong to the face of a mortal, but a real vampire. She smiled slightly, her rouge lips curving upward. "He likes to tell stories. But I can tell you something, stranger; there's never been someone quite like you in the Silver Knight before."

I immediately closed my mouth, hiding my prominent fangs, unwillingly the victim of this woman's alien beauty. "Who are you?" I managed to ask plainly.

"I might ask you the same, creature," she smiled. "Are you a man, or aren't you? You're supposed to introduce yourself first."

Heat grilled in my undead cheeks. If I could have blushed, I would have. Instead, I bristled. "You shouldn't talk to me," I whispered, reaching out to touch her hand. If I couldn't frighten her off, I'd be in trouble. She was a woman - she'd let out the cry of vampire to the entire pub, and these hunters would be on me like a bloodstain.

She looked down at my hand. Her eyes widened; so did her smile. "I was right," she whispered softly, and took my hand. Her fingers were warm from her body trying to fight the cold rain. She looked back up into my face, and saw that I was horrified. "Don't worry. Please, I won't tell anyone. Come outside with me."

That moment, she stood again and nodded to the bartender before leaving. Shortly after, I stepped out as well, keeping the hood safe around my ghastly features. She was there under the eaves to avoid getting wet. "Now tell me who you are," she said quietly, her hood drawn back, and her mane of bright red hair falling around her face.

"I am Kain," I answered slowly, arching a brow at her. My eyes, burning from their sockets with that peculiar yellow fire, probably made her look at me more closely to see it in this light. I was taken aback by her stark beauty. Her lips were even a darker red than I had thought, her oval-shaped eyes almost exotic, outlined in black liner. Her face was very easy to look at. In fact, it was difficult not to.

"Morgana," she replied. "I'm a gypsy... a witch, if you will. I sensed you before I could walk into the door." Unexpectedly, this did not surprise me. Anyone with one whit of psychic ability could have sensed me a mile away. She continued softly, her eyes casting about warily. "You are the Lord Kain, yes? You are _vempari_." She used the word of those people at the Vampire Citadel. I smiled, nodding slowly.

She bowed her head, whispering something then peered up at me again, laughing with joy. "You are! My goodness, I've been waiting for months to catch a glimpse of you!"

"All you wanted was a glimpse? Of the great Kain? Get away from me!" My smile disintigrated into a snarl of contempt. I shoved her back, but all she did was catch the wall and laugh with a woman's joy. I struggled to ignore it, turning away as I drew the darkness around my face with hood and shadows. "I have more pressing matters, woman. Go back to your husband. If you approach me again, I'll kill you."

Out into the rain I went. The night was drawing close, the sunlight's rays barely squeezing through the cracks in the clouds made by storm and fog. To my utter disbelief, I heard her squelching footsteps behind me as she followed, warily, at a distance. I needed to visit the lord of Agden, to remind him of his loyalty to me and what he owed me for my protection. But I couldn't go visit him with this infernal woman tagging along. Whatever she wanted, her priorities were about as convoluted as time itself in Nosgoth.

Gradually, her footsteps receded and I was free to invade Lord Sparda's mansion. All it was, really, was a squatty-looking building amidst the mud, three stories tall, made of brick and stone. A great wall surrounded it to keep out monsters and thieves. But not I. There was a gate for the garden around the back of the massive structure, not nearly as large as my fortress, but for a sich, pompous doddering idiot, it was just fine. In a cloud of mist, I slipped through the metal gate and into the rain-drenched backyard of Lord Sparda.

Doffing the cloak in the rose bushes, I walked down a stone path; round marble steps winding between the puddles. The rain dripped down my arms, legs, making me proposterously uncomfortable. Every time I moved, my clothing made a horrid squeaking like leather being rubbed together.

The door in the back was not guarded. Why would it be? The gate was still locked. Lord Sparda obviously hadn't learned his lesson about vampires. I opened the door and realized I was dripping wet - no matter. The rouge carpet would suffer a bit of a drenching during these visits, but not every house could remain perfect forever. On the walls were portriats of Sparda and his family. One portrait of himself was in the large common room which was the largest room in the house, with a voluminous kitchen setting to one side. A kitchen right in the midst of things was not a traditional means to build a house, but then again, Sparda was a little crazy.

By the hearth, one of his wolfhounds was asleep by the fire. It did not stir as I stepped lightly past, the squeaking having by now stopped. I examined the portrait with a sneer. Sparda was fat, ugly, with dark bags under both of his eyes from drinking and staying awake all of the time. He fashioned himself a ladies' man, but he was a disgusting breed of human that I couldn't fathom even if I was trying to keep the humans fearing vampires.

Thankfully, his eldest son, Dell, was nearly of age when he would take over lordship of Agden and the surrounding environs. The young man was a great shot more handsome and responsible than his father. He looked absolutely nothing like him. It was probably due to infidelity on the wife's part. Dell's acute gaze and willingness to learn was admirable - I was longing for the day when he would take over. He was not as impressionable and suspicious as his so-called father, which granted an easier time of discussing matters involving protection and payment.

A voice cried softly behind me. While I'd been busy examining the portraits in the room, Dell himself had come. At the sound of his master's voice, the wolfhound lifted his head, then rose to his feet, running past me and jumping up against his master's shoulders, tail wagging with such power I was afraid he'd knock down one of the candles on the end table.

"Y-Your Majesty," Dell said, his dark brown hair combed back from a clear pale forehead. He wore a robe around himself, having readied himself for sleep. The surprise faded from his features and he hushed the wolfhound, who padded around the room, sniffing things. The dogs were so used to my prowling they hardly noticed me anymore. "I was merely coming in to turn out the lights."

I smiled, and lifted a hand. He watched it quietly, as if he were watching a beetle devour its prey. "Let me help." A sleight of hand - a wind, strong enough to blow out candles, flew about the room, and doused the room into darkness. I walked toward Dell, chuckling. "Good boy. Now, tell me - where is your father?"

"The old monster is upstairs, drinking again. I don't think he'll be pleased to see you. He thinks each time you come will be his last moment on earth. Do you want me to come with you? I know how he can get..." Dell hesitated. Hardly was he so pleasant with me, but perhaps somehow tonight was different. Then I felt it - a moment of silence, a certain aroma. It smelled like death.

I thought about it, before giving a sniff nod of assent. Dell returned the nod and left, calling the dog and pulling him by his collar to take him outside. Such a mundane task I watched with a certain surrealistic clarity until Dell shut the door and he walked quickly toward the stair in the hall. He ascended, also quickly, casting wary glances over his shoulder at me. Perhaps he thought he wanted to outrun me, or he was going too slowly. Flashes of lightning filled the darkness, blinding every few seconds. Finally Dell arrived at the door I was familiar with - a gilded doorknob, even its own knocker. It was absurdly ornate for a mere village lord.

"In here," Dell said. He knocked. "Father... Father, it is Kain."

I listened. There was a racking, terrible coughing. Then a voice cried, "No! I will not see this demon again! Send him away!"

The young man hesitated, glancing at me, agitation etched on his clear features. I smirked, and motioned him aside. I spoke loudly and clearly. "Let me in, Sparda. The wolf is hungry." Cruel of me, but it was humorous to get such a reaction out of him. His scream only proved as much, until he started coughing violently... and did not stop. Dell pushed past me to open the door and flew into the room to the bedside.

The room was in such a state of disarray, I felt I'd stepped into another dimension. Sparda lay on the bed underneath blankets, nurses in white all around him like ghosts while Dell looked at his father, neither touching him nor worrying for him. Sparda was turned into the pillow, wheezing and shuddering.

All joking forgotten, I drew close. Sparda saw me and nearly went into fits again until one of the nurses had stilled his struggling. He sputtered, his face sallow and pale and apparently bloodless. "Get away," he hissed. "Vampire! I told you not to come here anymore!"

"I never was a good boy," I said, staring down at him. "I came to discuss things with you... but sad to find that you are not in good health."

"I told him to stop drinking," said a woman I hadn't noticed. She was Sparda's wife, an old, scrawny woman that had the look of one who had borne too many children or hadn't eaten enough in years. Her voice quavered and sunk and rose in different tones, her head shaking slowly back and forth. "I told him to stop drinking. Master Vampire, will you help him?"

Help him? What exactly did they expect me to do? The man was a disgusting pig, a drunk, and justly deserved the death he had earned for himself. I turned away from the woman and stared down at Sparda, who seemed to lack the strength to move his round body away any farther. Dell was silent, his eyes shadowed. The man seemed absolutely unable to care about what happened to this man who called himself his father.

"Sparda," I said at last. The man's eyes flickered to my face, and his breathing was labored even more. "Dell, your child, will take your place of the household. Do I speak truly?"

"Truly," he wheezed, although his eyes narrowed. "Although the bastard is no son of mine."

"Spare me," I snapped. I drew the Reaver. I began to smile. Thirst tugged at my body, but it was turned away the longer I stared at this creature. The nurses gasped. I looked at each one of them, the six women's eyes filled with fear and awe. "Leave," I growled at them, and they clucked and squealed as they fled in terror.

Finally Dell spoke, calmly and without emotion. "What are you going to do?"

The Soul Reaver hummed. The blade became warm at my touch, the sword's edges gleaming as waves of blue energy undulated imperceptibly beneath its surface. _Rouse yourself_, I thought hungrily, caught up in its growing fervor. _Awaken...and feed._

"Get away from me," Sparda repeated once more, drawing his sheets up around his pudgy neck. I sneered, drawing closer. "G-Get away, damn you!"

"Yes... Damned. You are dying, fool. Your hatred and worries have made you witless, and you are wasting away before my eyes. If you could see what I see, Sparda, you would do the same as I."

"Wha--" "Quiet, mother!" Dell said sharply, backing away from the bed to hold onto her boney shoulders. "Be still."

"No!" she shouted as she struggled. "Oh, gods, no!"

I raised the Reaver and struck a blow, a clean blow, cutting off his head and his hands which had risen to shield his face. The Soul Reaver shrieked, unfettered joy in the feeding. I drew blood from the corpse to me, drinking it from the air, the body trembling as I willed it into my mouth and devoured it. Then when it was over, Dell was restrainig his weeping, terrified mother from leaping at me and clawing at me with her desperate fingers. Finally, Dell led her away, and pushed her out the door, shutting it, turning to me.

He smiled. "You did us all a favor at the mansion here, vampire. As my father before me, I will be in your service... was there anything you'd like to discuss?"

"Certainly," I replied, a pleasant smile on my face. "But let's find a suitable place to sit down, shall we?"


	12. Punishment

_--Amanda--_

In the darkness, I slipped into a trance. My room was forbidden, just as Kain's room was forbidden to everyone else. I was trying to remember something from my world, one of the castle cats sleeping against my stomach with its nose buried underneath his paws. It was a thickly furred, dark striped tabby. Her warm body smelled nice, because I was used to cats and always loved them.

The cool breeze through my window was soothing. My skin had been hot and itchy for the last week since Kain had been gone. No sign of the net outside that Faust had promised, but I knew it would be a few years before I thought of jumping off of that thing again. For now, my hot, itchy skin required plenty of swimming and a magic salve that I begged the servants to rub on me whenever I had a spare moment. I swam in the dark, slanted corridors beneath the fortress where monsters had never lived.

I spent most of my time down there, since I'd jumped. However, I couldn't go into the air-filled caverns by the water-ways with my salve. It was mostly around my shoulders where the irritation occured. All along my back. I squirmed, and dislodged the kitty from my chest, to roll over and try to reach and scratch.

A cry disturbed my scratchy musings, a cry of an intruder. I leapt out of bed, dashed the candles and incense against the wall as I steeled myself for whatever was going to happen. After all, I was supposed to be the one to take care of these things while Kain was gone. I rushed headlong down the corridor, following the sounds of shouting.

Raoul stood in a black pair of pants, shirtless but a long cloak around his shoulders with Kain's symbol upon it. The great black doors that lead into the fortress were opened and a man was standing there - well, with the help of Faust, who was guiding him inside.

"He's injured," he explained simply, as if it wasn't obvious from the man's bleeding, gushing wounds all over his body.

The stranger wore thick bands, but apparently it hadn't been enough to protect him from the ravages of a monster. I approached him, being the only capable doctor in close proximity. He was still clinging to his sword with precariously slippery fingers, soaked with blood. He looked up at me; I fell back as if struck by a fist in the stomach. What had looked like a fierce, strong green glow now faded.

I thought I'd been looking into the tortured face of Raziel. I shook it off; Raoul was looking at me strangely. I grabbed the man and began to help him into the castle and into the nearest rooms. I sharply ordered for some supplies to make him well, but knew at once that even with the strength of Kain, I wouldn't have been able to save this man's life. The image of Raziel's face would not let me rest. I sewed him up, but he needed a transfusion. He was constantly throwing up what I'd tried to feed him. I never dealt well with nauseated people.

Finally, I commanded everyone to leave the room altogether. He was waking up again from an unsteady state of mind that left him breathless and terrified. He said nothing. I pressed close to him, the sudden emptiness of the room calming me - now it was just he and I.

"I'm dying," he said to me quietly. His pale face was beaded with sick-smelling sweat.

"You're not going to die," I said as I stroked his hair. "You're not going anywhere. You're not leaving me, Raziel. Not again!"

I sliced my arm for him. I knew that with my blood he'd most likely become a vampire, since he'd nearly no blood of his own. With a steel will and a determination that scared me, I let the stranger feed from my vital essence.

_--Kain--_

Relief flowed through me as I pinned the Fortress within my sight. All it had done was rain for days on end. If I had been alive, I could have seen my breath in a misty fog. The stench of old blood filled my nostrils, which was not unusual, but underneath it was newly shed blood. On the drawbridge there was a dark red stain, splotches... someone or something certainly had done himself an injury.

I rushed into the castle, greeted by my two quiet and unusually reticent sons. "Where is Amanda?" I demanded of them. Neither looked anxious to provide me with an answer, so instead I took Faust, the quiet one, and lifted him from the ground. "Where is she?" I said slowly, articulating my words very carefully.

When I put him down, he said in his soft, monotone manner that somehow accented the stress of the situation. "She is unwell, Father."

"You'd best come see her. Father, we've been trying to help her--" Raoul continued for him; his tired pale features, sharp in the shadows cast by the torches suddenly made more sense to me. Trying to see through the numbing veil of terror and worry and another emotion almost like anger pulsed through me. I shoved them aside, and sought my daughter out.

The corridors blurred in my vision as I ran past, leaping along entire sets of stairs to reach her. I found her confined in her bedroom. Out of the corner of my eye one of the gray castle cats sped out of the room behind me, skittering as fast as it could to dive behind a tapestry. Blind with emotion, I threw back the blankets and pulled her from the bed. Her knees buckled, her large hazel eyes turning yellow at me. I wanted to hit her; what damned foolery had she attempted this time?

"What have you done?" I shouted. "What now? It isn't enough that I worry about the rest of the world! What do you want from me?"

She shoved me away, throwing herself down onto her bed again. She drew herself up, turning to glare over her shoulder toward me. I stepped closer, clenching my talons. Her eyes had yellowed again, her face a disturbing mask of searing hatred. "I can leave. I don't have to stay here with you... and waste your precious time. No more... eking out some kind of purpose here, with nobody to talk to but the four walls and my idiot brothers. They all think I'm too odd! Even you think I'm crazy!"

"I don't--" I began, before I realized I might have been telling a lie. "Amanda, you are my daughter. It doesn't matter what I think. I love you always! Why do you continuously put yourself in such danger?"

"So you do think I'm mad," she whispered.. Her body shook violently. "Get out. Get out! _GET OUT!_""

"No," I growled, advancing on her. I extended my reach to grab her, only to feel her writhe around and lunge at me. Her weight hit me in the chest, knocking me backward. Her fingers clawed and shredded at my skin, which tore open and healed again in less than an eye's blink. My chest stung where her claws had set in; I grabbed her hair and threw her back from me, mute with the terrible horror of it. She tumbled across the floor three times over before turning back onto her heels and throwing herself again.

I left the room, slamming it shut and locking it. I leaned against it, hearing things breaking, her ghoulish shriekings of outrage, until the point of a dagger erupted through the wood close to my ear.

"Madness," I murmured, stepping away, pressing my hands against my face. Then I thought, What if Raziel had something to do with this? I believed nothing had been spared when it came to Amanda's sanity. If she continued to carry on, unhindered, would her mind be raped beyond repair? The thought tore through me, devoured me, until I felt I could no longer keep myself from weeping with helplessness. Once again I had found her ripped away from me, but this time there was no magic artifact that revealed itself to save her. No advice from a disembodied entity that showed me the way. Where was my gods-damned destiny now?

Both Faust and Raoul stood at the end of the corridor, wringing their hands, and averting their gaze when I noticed. I walked up to them, inspecting them, then said stiffly, "Go to your rooms, feed, take care of yourselves."


End file.
